By Emily E. Smith and Rebecca Woolington, The Oregonian, Sept. 30, 2013
Adam Havery Olsen
Hillsboro police officers fired seven rounds at a man believed to be armed and suicidal during a standoff Sept. 17 at his Orenco apartment, police and court records show.
Officer David Bonn fired a rifle at Adam Havery Olsen, 33, while Officer Dan Winter used his Glock semiautomatic pistol, according to the police department and a search warrant affidavit filed in Washington County Circuit Court. Olsen was not harmed in the incident.
The affidavit, made public Monday, Sept. 30, provides more details about the nearly three-hour standoff. The incident marked the second officer-involved shooting in Washington County this year.
Shortly after 10 p.m. that day, Olsen’s girlfriend summoned police to his apartment in the 1200 block of Northeast Orenco Station Parkway. The 21-year-old woman reported that Olsen was armed and threatening “suicide by cop,” the affidavit said.
She told officers that Olsen brought up suicide two weeks earlier and that Hillsboro police responded that time, too.
Olsen had been drinking since 2 or 3 p.m., she told police, and he had used a knife and piece of broken glass to cut his chest. That’s when she told him she was going to call 9-1-1.
Olsen then went to his bedroom, got a handgun and tucked it into his waistband, she said. She had seen the gun before and previously believed it was a BB gun. When police arrived, they ordered her out of the apartment, the affidavit said.
Sgt. David White spoke to Olsen by phone for 22 minutes, records show. White described Olsen as being angry and profane, and threatening to shoot anyone.
Olsen ended the conversation saying, “Tell my girlfriend I wish it would have lasted,” according to White’s account. Minutes later, the sergeant said he heard gunfire.
Officer Debra Crooks was standing in the breezeway of the apartment complex when she saw Olsen come to his front door with a gun raised, the affidavit said. She said she backed up, fell and didn’t see what Olsen did next.
Two officers fired shots at Olsen, who went back into his apartment, she said. At 10:47 p.m., Hillsboro police radioed “shots fired,” according to the search warrant.
At 11:16 p.m., Officer Dave Morse fired bean bag rounds at Olsen, which Hillsboro police said shattered a window in his apartment.
Spackle on the walls outside Adam Havery Olsen’s apartment covers bullet holes.
Beaverton Police Officer Aaron Oberst told a detective that he and other Washington County SWAT members encountered Olsen inside the breezeway and ordered him to stop, the affidavit said.
Olsen continued toward Oberst, who believed Olsen could be armed because his hand was in his pants pocket. When he was within arm’s reach of the officer, Oberst forced Olsen back with the muzzle of his shotgun, court records show.
By 12:45 a.m. the following morning, police had Olsen in custody.
Among the evidence collected at the scene: seven shell casings, five beanbag projectiles, two Taser probes from a doorframe, one Taser probe from a bathroom sink, a knife from the bathroom, two laptops, a Marksman Repeater pellet gun and a handwritten note found in the kitchen.
Olsen remains in Washington County Jail on six misdemeanor charges of menacing, resisting arrest and interfering with a peace officer. A judge declined Friday to lower Olsen’s bail, which is set at $250,000.
The incident marks the second officer-involved shooting in Washington County this year. The first occurred Jan. 20, at the Forest Grove home of then-Hillsboro Officer Timothy Cannon, who is accused of exchanging gunfire with Washington County law enforcement officers. He is in jail, awaiting trial on charges of attempted aggravated murder.