Oregon Police Confront Violent Man, Man Wrestles With Cops, Pulls Gun And Shoots, Gets Slugs And A Trip To The Morgue

A Portland police officer shot and killed a man in the Centennial neighborhood of Southeast Portland just after midnight Sunday.

Police said the incident happened while officers from the East Precinct tried to arrest the man, who had been fighting physically with a woman near Southeast 148th Avenue and Clinton Street.

The man fired a shot, and an officer shot back, police said. The man died at the scene. Police did not say how many times the officer fired.

Christopher Ponte said he was out filming police with a friend when they came upon the shooting. “We got behind a cop car and figured let’s see what he was doing,” said Ponte, who with about a handful of other people call themselves Oregon CopWatch News.

Two Portland officers, a man and a woman, were on the sidewalk talking to a man, and then it appeared they were trying to take him into custody and handcuff him when the man struggled and resisted, Ponte said.

“He fought back, resisted and pulled out a gun,” Ponte said of the man police were attempting to handcuff. “The guy pulled out his own gun, and the male cop put his hand on either the pistol or the man’s wrist.”

He said he believes the man struggling with the two officers fired a single shot from a pistol.

After the gunshot, the male officer continued to struggle with the suspect. At some point, the male officer grabbed the man’s pistol, had it in one hand and was struggling with the man with his other hand, Ponte said.