Man killed after standoff
From The Eugene Register-Guard, January 19, 2003
A man who had threatened to kill himself and fired at police was fatally shot by SWAT team sharpshooters early Saturday after he emerged from his residence wielding a .44-caliber handgun, ending a tense seven-hour standoff.
Police said that Guy Einer McClure, 35, barricaded himself inside his recreational vehicle about 8:30 p.m. Friday after Lane County deputies arrived to investigate a domestic dispute involving gunfire.
During the all-night standoff, deputies surrounded the vehicle parked at a Creswell mobile home park and repeatedly ordered him to disarm himself and come outside. Police fired tear gas into the vehicle twice, prompting the man inside to shoot at officers and warn them not to come near, police said.
Shortly before 4 a.m., he emerged from the vehicle waving a pistol. He ignored officers’ commands to drop the gun and continued advancing on them, acting Eugene Police Chief Thad Buchanan said.
He was shot dead by nine members of the Metro SWAT team.
It was the first fatal shooting by the Metro Area SWAT team, which is made up of Eugene police officers and Lane County sheriff’s deputies. It was the third time in 25 years that the special tactics team had shot someone, Buchanan said.
Residents of the quiet mobile home park were stunned Saturday morning. Many had been evacuated during the ordeal, while others, arriving home during the standoff, were held outside a police perimeter and were not allowed to return home until morning. Some, however, remained in their homes, huddled low to the ground until it was over.
“One of them (bullets) missed my wife by about 3 feet,” said Larry Arnold, 67, who was hunkered down in his trailer. Arnold and his wife, Sharon, stayed on the floor of their trailer, adjacent to McClure’s, with four friends until 5 a.m., Arnold said.
One resident, 88-year-old Dorothy Kraegenbrink, awoke Saturday to find bullet holes in the wall of her mobile home.
“Isn’t this something,” said Kraegenbrink, as she surveyed the holes in her living room wall. “I can’t believe this was going on when I was in the bedroom.”
Kraegenbrink, who moved to Creswell Court at 700 N. Mill St. from Springfield only a month ago, locked herself in her bedroom about 10 p.m. Friday night at the request of her daughter who lives just a few doors away. A fence separates Kraegenbrink’s back yard from McClure’s RV. Kraegenbrink said she didn’t hear the gunfire because she is hard of hearing.
Four bullet holes lodged in the wall above the bed of Kraegenbrink’s granddaughter, Bethany Pattee, 14, who was not home during the standoff. She attended a Creswell High basketball game in Elmira on Friday night and was unable to get to her home because the trailer park was cordoned off by police.
Bethany Pattee’s brother, David, was relieved that his sister was out.
“If she hadn’t spent the night at a friend’s house, she might not be here,” he said.
Charmaine Pattee said her mother should have been evacuated from her home Friday night.
“I don’t think they handled it very well,” she said of officers on the scene.
Pam Olshanski, Eugene police spokeswoman, said officers did everything they could to protect residents.
Police evacuated as many homes as possible, but some people did not answer their doors. It was unclear whether officers knocked on Kraegenbrink’s door.
Investigators had not determined Saturday whether the bullets that hit Kraegenbrink’s home were from McClure’s weapon or from police fire, Olshanski said.
At a press conference Saturday, Buchanan gave the following account of what happened:
At 8:24 p.m. Friday, sheriff’s deputies responded to a domestic dispute involving a high-caliber weapon at McClure’s RV, at Space D of the mobile home park. Deputies determined that a handgun had discharged during a fight between McClure and his 37-year-old girlfriend.
McClure told dispatchers that he had been shot in the face and that he wanted to die.
A neighbor got the woman out of the RV before police arrived. But deputies were unable to persuade McClure, who had been drinking heavily, to surrender. At 10:51 p.m., deputies fired tear gas into the trailer, prompting McClure to fire several shots at deputies.
The SWAT team arrived at 12:30 a.m. and attempted to negotiate with McClure, but were unable to get him to leave. The SWAT team fired more tear gas into the home, and McClure fired additional rounds at officers.
Several officers said they felt the bullets flying by their heads, Buchanan said.
At 3:50 a.m., McClure came out of the trailer still holding the handgun, and was shot numerous times. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The woman who had fought with McClure spent Saturday morning with county victims services personnel and was planning to leave the area with a relative, Lane County District Attorney Doug Harcleroad said.
The district attorney’s office is investigating the case to determine if charges will be filed against the woman, Harcleroad said, adding that McClure possibly suffered from mental illness.
All nine officers involved in the shooting will be placed on administrative leave for a few days, Lane County Sheriff Jan Clements said. That leaves the 24-member SWAT team with only 15 members. In the meantime, the Springfield Police Department has agreed to supply some of its SWAT team members if necessary, Buchanan said.
Residents said they knew little about McClure and his girlfriend. Some said McClure was a logger and that the couple moved here two or three months ago.
“When he was drinking, he was a mean sucker,” said Mike Boylan, 67, the park’s assistant manager. “When he wasn’t, he was the nicest person you’d ever want to meet.”
Arnold, who had crouched in his home during the standoff, said he had had enough.
“I want to get out of here,” Arnold said Saturday. The Arnolds are building a home in Creswell and will move out next month, he said.
As investigators removed McClure’s body and gathered evidence Saturday, McClure’s .44-caliber Magnum lay on the ground near the steps leading to the RV trailer. A rifle sat nearby on a picnic table bench.
Six tiny American flags stood planted on wooden hand rails leading to the front door, and bumper stickers on the back of the RV indicated it had been to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, to “Colorado River Adventures” in Parker, Ariz., and to the “Kentucky Horse Park.”
A stunned Kraegenbrink shook her head, still not believing that her home was peppered with bullet holes. Shrapnel could be found in her kitchen cupboards and on the floor of her bathroom.
“This is just awful,” Kraegenbrink said.
John Boling, who has lived here in his RV for about a year, still couldn’t believe what happened.
“It’s usually quiet around here,” said Boling, who lives just two trailers down from McClure’s. “It’s a pretty nice place to live.”
Authorities investigate SWAT team shooting
From the Eugene Register-Guard, January 21, 2003
A bouquet of white snapdragons rests on the porch steps where Guy Einer McClure breathed his last breath Saturday. A single pink carnation marks the spot where his head hit the ground after he was shot by police.
Shattered glass and purple tear gas residue litter the tiny yard, and a small pool of congealed blood stains the driveway.
A yellow chalk outline shows where his .44-caliber handgun fell. He used the weapon to keep police at bay for nearly eight hours during a violent standoff at a Creswell mobile home park.
The tattered fifth-wheel trailer in space D is a jarring sight in the well-maintained cul-de-sac. Neighbors go about their business, but there it stands, a reminder of the violence that struck over the weekend.
“It seems so distant now, so far away,” said Sharon Arnold, whose trailer was punctured by a bullet as she and five other people lay on the floor throughout the confrontation. “It was like a horror movie.”
McClure, 35, had barricaded himself inside his trailer at Creswell Court after a violent dispute with his girlfriend about 8:30 p.m. Friday. Neighbors said the couple had been drinking all day.
A neighbor helped the girlfriend escape, and six Lane County sheriff’s deputies arrived and surrounded the trailer. Nearby residents who answered their doors were told to leave the area or go to a trailer designated as a “safe house.”
Despite repeated requests, McClure refused to come out and shot at deputies as they fired tear gas into his home. He threatened suicide and said he would shoot anyone who came near him, police spokeswoman Pam Olshanski said.
The SWAT team arrived about 12:30 a.m., and McClure fired on them twice. A SWAT officer returned fire, Olshanski said.
Around 4 a.m., after hours of negotiations, McClure finally emerged, waving a gun and refusing police demands that he drop the weapon.
“He has already shown himself to be homicidal and suicidal, and he’s already fired several rounds,” Olshanski said.
“He was repeatedly hailed to drop the weapon, and he would not drop it. He gets within 10 feet of the officers. He has now crossed the point of officer safety.”
The nine SWAT officers fired their weapons, Olshanski said. It wasn’t clear Monday how many times the officers shot or how many bullets hit McClure; Olshanski would say only that he had been shot “multiple times.”
It was also unclear whether bullets that pierced walls of several homes were fired from police weapons. No neighbors were injured.
John Sullivan, a former Las Vegas police officer who has investigated more than 100 officer-involved shootings and works as a consultant and expert witness in deadly force cases, said the number of officers involved was “somewhat out of the norm.”
“Normally, you don’t find nine SWAT officers firing their weapons,” Sullivan told a reporter during a telephone interview Monday. “To some people it would seem like overkill. But until you’re in the shoes of the officers, it’s difficult to second-guess their actions.”
McClure’s proximity and the fact that he was shooting without concern for police or his neighbors probably contributed to the pressure, he said.
“There is a phenomenon that occurs when the first officer fires under a highly tense situation,” Sullivan said. “It’s like a domino effect. Other officers start firing.”
It wasn’t clear Monday whether such a domino effect occurred at the trailer park Saturday.
The SWAT members – six Eugene police officers and three Lane County sheriff’s deputies – are on administrative leave, recovering from the stress and emotional impact of the shooting.
Meanwhile, a standard series of investigations is under way.
Lane County District Attorney Doug Harcleroad ruled Saturday that the SWAT team’s first fatal confrontation in 27 years was a justified shooting.
The Eugene police shooting review board, made up of members of that department, is conducting an internal investigation to determine whether department policies and protocols were followed.
And the Lane County major crimes unit is examining the initial dispute between McClure and his 37-year-old girlfriend, who has left town.
Investigators were trying to determine whether McClure had been shot during a scuffle with his girlfriend before deputies arrived, Olshanski said. If so, the woman could face criminal charges.
McClure apparently told dispatchers that half his face had been blown away and that he wanted to die. A neighbor who briefly saw McClure told deputies that blood covered his shirt.
No one knew much about McClure at Creswell Court. Oregon court records show that he lived in Prineville as recently as September 1999. He and his wife divorced that year after she sought a domestic violence restraining order against him.
He had convictions for misdemeanor assault and harassment, and creditors had sued him a number of times in small claims court.
Last Thursday, his ex-wife filed to renew a year-old domestic violence restraining order in Jefferson County Circuit Court.
Neighbor John Perry and his wife, Lillian, had seen McClure and his new girlfriend in the area a few times. McClure often drove his pickup truck at high speeds in the neighborhood populated by kids and the elderly, Perry said.
A deputy evacuated the couple from their trailer around 9 p.m. Friday. They watched the confrontation unfold from outside a fence surrounding the park.
“As far as protecting the people, I think they did as good a job as they could,” John Perry said. “I guess I’d have to give them an A for overall performance.”
Throughout the ordeal, officers used a loudspeaker to order McClure to step out of the trailer with his hands up, Perry said. Their demands were occasionally answered with gunfire, he said.
Around 4 a.m., the Perrys saw a blue and white flash and heard a loud concussion that deputies later told them was a stun grenade. Then came several rapid gunshots. Perry said he heard no more talking over the loudspeaker and assumed that the standoff had ended.
“I would rather have seen him get wounded and spend the next 10 years in a mental hospital,” he said. “But sometimes a guy says, `I want to jump off this cliff, but I don’t want to do it myself. So I’m gonna pick a fight with this guy right on the edge of it and see what happens.’ ‘
RECENT LANE COUNTY POLICE SHOOTINGS
April 1, 2002: Eugene police officer Sean Hughes shot and then struck 37-year-old Robert Allen Cameron with his car as the kidnap, rape and carjacking suspect fled from police during a violent crime spree in downtown Eugene.
Oct. 3, 2001: Springfield police officer Rod Harrison wounded Jaired Paul Gordon, 29, as Gordon, who claimed that he was God, charged the officer with a pocketknife.
Feb. 26, 2001: Eugene police officer Ray Brown wounded 27-year-old Jason Glen Campbell after he shot at the officer during a bank robbery in south Eugene. The woman Campbell had taken hostage was not injured.
Feb. 21, 2001: Eugene police officer Ted Williams critically injured fellow SWAT officer Sgt. Jay Shadwick during a standoff with armed man Robbie Leon Harris, 24, near Creswell. Shadwick recovered and now leads the department’s K-9 team.
Oct. 7, 1999: Springfield police officer Don Myers Jr. wounded 25-year-old Jesse Wade Powell, who had run from a stolen car, dashed into his parents’ Glenwood house and came at the officer with two large kitchen knives.
Jan. 23, 1999: Oregon State Police Trooper James Hawkins fatally shot Marvin Donald Free, 64, after Free fired a high-powered rifle at the trooper when he stopped Free’s wife for drunken driving. The Lane County district attorney didn’t prosecute Ellie Free after her husband was killed.
March 13, 1996: Eugene police officer Randall Berger shot suspected heroin dealer Marvin Young while Berger was using his gun to try to break Young’s car window as the suspect drove away from a south Eugene parking lot.
Feb. 19, 1996: Sheriff’s Deputy Byron Trapp wounded 49-year-old Richard Lovejoy with shots fired at a pit bull in a trailer home during a late-night raid on a methamphetamine lab. Lovejoy was not charged and accepted an $835,000 settlement.
Aug. 11, 1995: Eugene police officer Randall Berger fatally shot 31-year-old Bradley Alan Smith after Smith, who was drunk, pointed a pistol at the officer in a west Eugene parking lot at night. The pistol turned out to be a pellet gun that looked like a firearm.
Feb. 22, 1994: Eugene police officer Greg Harvey fatally shot robbery suspect Kenneth Charles Valleau when Valleau aimed a pistol at Harvey as the officer tried to arrest him.
Nov. 26, 1993: Springfield police officer John Slimack fatally shot 44-year-old Joe Gene Barton after Barton took cover under a wooden deck and pointed a pistol at the officer.
Sept. 6, 1992: Eugene police officers Jay Shadwick and Steve Lawnicki, members of a SWAT team, fired into a home where an escaped prison inmate held five people hostage. Physicians later had to amputate the left arm of the escapee, Steven Vaughn Wall, 29.
Aug. 27, 1991: Florence police officer Harry Johnson wounded 36-year-old Reagan Mulvane when Mulvane pointed a pistol at the officer during a drug raid.
Gunman told 911 dispatchers he wanted to die
From the Eugene Register-Guard, January 22, 2003
Guy Einer McClure drank whiskey throughout his eight-hour standoff with police and believed he was bleeding to death from a gunshot wound to the face.
His fiancee had shot him with a .44-caliber Magnum during a drunken dispute in their Creswell trailer and he wanted to die, he told a 911 dispatcher shortly before 9 p.m. last Friday.
“I’m about out of blood,” he told the call-taker.
“I’ve already made peace with my maker,” he said. “I want to have my last drink of whiskey and then I’ll die.”
Seven hours later he was shot dead by police at the Creswell Court mobile home park at 700 N. Mill St.
His last words were recounted in a typed log of more than a dozen calls between McClure and Lane County 911 dispatchers in the hours before he died.
In the calls, he alternately screams in pain from the gunshot wound, laments the troubles with his 37-year-old girlfriend and berates officers.
The Lane County district attorney has called the shooting justified. The county sheriff’s office and Eugene Police Department are conducting internal investigations.
McClure, 35, had ignored constant, repeated orders to step out of the trailer without the gun. Even tear gas fired into the trailer didn’t force him out.
“Tell your boys that the tear gas didn’t work,” he said. “My nose is burning, but that’s all.”
He mocked the officers who tried to drive him outside, telling them “to take another shot” and then firing his weapon in their direction.
He told dispatchers that he would shoot anyone who came near him and told police to “back off.” He made it clear that he wouldn’t come out voluntarily.
According to the call record, McClure’s girlfriend called 911 at 8:13 p.m. Friday. She was crying and asking for help. McClure got on the line, but wouldn’t answer any questions and eventually hung up.
The dispatcher called back and noted that McClure sounded very drunk. He hung up again.
The call-taker also noted that there had been a recent report of an attempted suicide at the trailer.
At 8:27 p.m., another resident of Creswell Court called 911 to report that his neighbor had been shot. McClure had called the resident and said his girlfriend had shot him with a .44 Magnum, the neighbor said.
Sheriff’s deputies arrived 20 minutes later and surrounded the trailer in space D. The girlfriend had left and told deputies that McClure had the handgun and two .22-caliber rifles.
At 8:52 p.m., McClure told a dispatcher that he wanted to die. He said half his face had been blown off and he was bleeding to death. He refused to leave the trailer and said he was going to drink some more whiskey.
By 9:15 p.m., deputies evacuated residents from surrounding trailers. Six deputies surrounded the house. McClure had stopped making threats, but said he wanted to stay inside. He hung up again.
At 10:37 p.m., a nurse at Sacred Heart Medical Center called dispatchers and said McClure’s family was at the hospital awaiting his arrival. He apparently had called his mother while barricaded inside. On several occasions, deputies fired bean bags to break windows and then shot tear gas canisters inside.
The first round of tear gas prompted McClure to call 911. Coughing violently, he told police, “You guys back off.” He then fired several bullets out the windows and told police to leave him alone. As deputies fired more tear gas into the trailer, he grew increasingly distraught. But he told a dispatcher that it was too cold to go outside.
At 11:10 p.m., the Metro Area SWAT team was called to the trailer park and arrived about 12:30 a.m.
Sixteen SWAT officers surrounded the trailer, with teams at the front and back doors. They were armed with Heckler and Koch rifles and 9 mm automatic rifles, and at least one officer carried a .223-caliber automatic rifle, Eugene police Lt. Pete Kerns said Tuesday.
Most of the officers used 9 mm bullets because they don’t travel as fast and are less likely to pass through a target and strike a bystander, Kerns said.
McClure fired at the officers at least twice, and a SWAT officer shot back once, police said.
Negotiators convinced McClure to leave the trailer at 3:50 a.m., but he came out holding the .44 in his hand. As he walked down a small set of stairs, he came within 10 feet of the SWAT officers, who were ordering him to drop the gun.
He ignored their demands, police said, and nine of the officers fired their weapons.
Oregon State Police forensic scientists were analyzing the officers’ weapons, and the sheriff’s office was working to determine how many bullets were fired, how many struck McClure and whether any of the bullets that pierced neighboring trailers came from police weapons.
Ultimately, each police officer must evaluate whether deadly force is appropriate in a given situation, Kerns said. SWAT commanders don’t designate a single shooter or group of shooters because it’s impossible to predict the actions of an armed suspect, he said.
“You can’t always judge the quality of an operation like this by how it ends,” Kerns said. “The SWAT commanders and sergeants did a very good job. I think the public can be very proud of it.”
Autopsy shows suspect was shot 25 to 31 times
From the Eugene Register-Guard, February 3, 2003
A man who shot at police and said he wanted to die during an eight-hour confrontation at his Creswell trailer was shot at least 25 times when he stepped outside with a gun in his hand and refused to drop it.
Dr. Edward Wilson, assistant Lane County medical examiner, on Friday released results from the autopsy of Guy Einer McClure, 35, shot by nine Metro Area SWAT officers Jan. 18 following the overnight standoff.
Wilson said at least 25 and as many as 31 bullets hit and wounded McClure when the officers fired. The majority of the bullets struck him in the torso, where police said SWAT officers are trained to aim.
Nine bullets hit his right arm, Wilson said. McClure held a .44-caliber handgun in that hand, police said.
“I am disgusted,” McClure’s mother, Kathy McClure of Eugene, said Friday. “If they had just left him alone, this wouldn’t have happened. He wasn’t shooting at them until they put the tear gas in.”
Police said the autopsy findings proved SWAT officers acted with discretion considering the danger posed to themselves and other residents of the Creswell Court trailer and mobile home park.
McClure called a neighbor Jan. 17 and said his fiancee had shot him in the face with a .44 Magnum. The 37-year-old woman escaped with a bullet wound to her hand.
The neighbor called police at 8:27 p.m. and deputies soon surrounded the trailer. The SWAT team arrived 3 1/2 hours later.
Deputies tried to drive him out with tear gas, and negotiators and dispatchers urged him to come outside unarmed. But McClure, who was drinking whiskey throughout the night, refused to come out. He told dispatchers that he was bleeding to death, that he wanted to die and that he would shoot anyone who tried to make him leave.
When he finally did exit shortly before 4 a.m., he held the .44 in his right hand with his finger on the trigger, police said. Officers repeatedly ordered him to drop the weapon.
They shot him when he walked within 10 feet of officers despite orders to stop, police said. About three seconds passed from the moment McClure stepped out of the trailer to the moment he fell to the ground, Eugene police Sgt. Scott McKee said.
Eight of the nine SWAT officers who shot at McClure were armed with fully automatic weapons designed to fire two or three bullets each time the trigger is pulled, McKee said. In three to five seconds, the weapons can unload their entire 30-round magazine, he said.
“When you put that into perspective, you understand that number of rounds is not unusual when you have that many shooters,” said McKee, who served on the SWAT team for 5 1/2 years and now heads the department’s violent crimes unit.
“I think it’s indicative of shooter discretion, because the weapons are capable of firing so much more,” he said. “An untrained officer or untrained individual may just squeeze the trigger and spray bullets until they’re out of ammunition.”
The Lane County district attorney has called the shooting justifiable. Eugene police and the Lane County sheriff’s office are conducting internal investigations into the officers’ conduct. Six of the nine shooters are Eugene officers and three are with the sheriff’s office.
The sheriff also is conducting a criminal investigation into the shooting and has not revealed the total number of bullets fired by officers or by McClure. Investigators also have not revealed whose bullets pierced several neighboring trailers and a mobile home.
Kathy McClure said she believes her son was blinded by tear gas when he stepped out of the trailer that night and he wasn’t wearing his glasses. “I know when he stepped out he couldn’t see those officers,” she said. “He didn’t have his glasses on and he can’t see a thing without them.”
She said alcoholism, financial problems and the lasting effects of a bitter divorce had driven the man into a deep depression.
A test performed after McClure’s death found he had a blood-alcohol level of 0.26 percent, more than three times the legal limit for drunken driving, said Wilson, the assistant medical examiner. Tests for other drugs came back negative.
No police bullets hit McClure in the head, although he had been shot in the face during the earlier domestic dispute, Wilson said. That wound was not life-threatening. Each of his arms and legs was hit, and bullets punctured both lungs, his heart, his liver, his aorta and his intestines.
State law allows all sworn officers to use deadly force when their lives or the lives of others are in imminent danger. In this case, nine individual officers evaluated the threat and concluded that the only way to stop McClure was to shoot, McKee said. Because of the unpredictability of barricaded suspects, no one officer or team of officers was designated the shooter, he said.
All of the Eugene officers involved have returned to work, McKee said. Some of them have struggled in the aftermath of the shooting and have sought counseling. “Just because we are police officers does not mean we are hardened to the point that the use of deadly force doesn’t impact us,” McKee said. “It’s an emotional situation. They’re all human beings.”
Kathy McClure said police have never contacted her to give their condolences for her son’s death. She expressed disdain for media depictions of suffering officers. “When they sign up for that job, they know what it is,” she said. “They know they can kill someone.”
SWAT shooting followed policy
From the Eugene Register-Guard, April 11, 2003
A shooting review board has ruled that nine Metro SWAT officers were complying with existing policies when they shot and killed a Creswell man on Jan. 18 following an overnight standoff at his trailer, Lane County Sheriff Jan Clements said Thursday.
Guy Einer McClure, 35, was shot 25 to 31 times when he stepped outside his trailer with a .44-caliber Magnum in his right hand and walked toward officers who had surrounded his home.
Three sheriff’s deputies and six Eugene police officers fired their weapons, mostly Heckler and Koch MP5 submachine guns, according to a separate criminal investigation.
It was the SWAT team’s first fatal confrontation in 27 years.
A criminal investigation cleared the officers of any wrongdoing, and the shooting review board found that they had acted in compliance with their respective agency’s policies and procedures, Clements said.
The second phase of the board’s review involves evaluating the policies, procedures, tactics, training, equipment and other elements that could have influenced the outcome of the confrontation, the sheriff said.
Results of that review have not been released.
Lane County District Attorney Doug Harcleroad previously called the shooting justifiable. All of the men have returned to work.
“I just don’t think it was right and I never will,” Kathy McClure, Guy McClure’s mother, said Thursday.
“I guess there’s nothing I can do. They’ve got their badges and they can kill whoever they want.”
Guy McClure called a neighbor on Jan. 17 and said his fiancee had shot him in the face with a .44 Magnum. An autopsy report confirmed that he had a “significant injury” to his right face and neck.
The 37-year-old woman escaped with a minor bullet wound to her hand. She has not been charged with any crime.
The neighbor reported the shooting at 8:27 p.m. and deputies soon surrounded the trailer.
The SWAT team arrived several hours later.
Deputies tried to drive McClure out with tear gas, and negotiators, dispatchers and officers urged him to come out unarmed. But McClure, who was drinking whiskey all night, refused to come out.
He shot at officers when they fired tear gas into his home.
Transcripts of his conversations with dispatchers show that he believed he was bleeding to death from his facial wound.
He said he wanted to die and threatened to kill himself and anyone who tried to make him leave.
“I got, uh, four more rounds left in my gun, plus I got a .22 in here if I have to use that,” he told a dispatcher. “I don’t want to live no more. … I’m not comin’ out.”
When he finally did exit around 4 a.m. the next day, he held the gun in his hand despite repeated orders to drop the weapon.
He kept the weapon at his side and did not point it at officers, but continued to walk toward them despite orders to stop, multiple witnesses said in statements to investigators.
The officers who fired told investigators they felt McClure was a threat to themselves or to their fellow officers and decided deadly force was necessary under the circumstances.
State law allows all sworn officers to use deadly force when their lives or the lives of others are in imminent danger.
The nine who fired included sheriff’s deputies Clifton Harrold and D.J. Mann and sheriff’s Sgt. Kenneth Simpson. The Eugene police officers were Eric Klinko, Jerry Webber, John Risko, Scott Vinje, Ray Brown and Sgt. Bill Solesbee.
All were members of the joint Eugene-Lane County SWAT team.
The shooting review board included command staff from both the Eugene Police Department and the Lane County sheriff’s office, as well as Oregon State Police and other outside experts, Clements said.
The board split into two teams for the secondary review of policy and procedure. One evaluated sheriff policy and the other looked at Eugene police policy.