POLICE KILL WOMAN ON THE ATTACK IN GRESHAM
From the Oregonian, September 10, 1997
Gresham police shot and killed a woman in front of a house in Northeast Gresham a block from Hall Elementary School this morning.
A frantic woman called 9-1-1 shortly before 8 a.m., telling police dispatchers that a woman with a gun was in her house, threatening to kill her daughter. She said the woman had already fired shots inside the house.
The daughter, a woman in her 20s, escaped out a back window before police arrived. The woman carrying the gun left the house.
Gresham Police Spokesman Sgt. David Lerwick said that when three officers arrived in the 2400 block of Northeast Fleming Terrace, they confronted a woman in her mid-50s carrying a small-caliber handgun.
What happened next was unclear this morning, but Lerwick said all three officers fired their weapons. The woman, who has not been identified, died at the scene. Her body, covered by a gray blanket, lay in a driveway next to the curb as investigators interviewed witnesses.
Jerry Small, who lives about half a block away, said he heard six to eight shots in rapid succession.
“It sounded like a machine gun,” Small said.
Lerwick said no one else was injured. He said no schoolchildren were ever in danger. Fleming Terrace is a residential street just west of Hall Elementary School. There is also a group home for disabled children at the end of the cul-de-sac.
The last Gresham police shooting was in August 1994 when police shot and killed a woman inside the Gresham Fred Meyer Store. The woman, who had a history of mental illness, lunged at police with a large knife.
GRESHAM POLICE KILL WOMAN AFTER SHOOTING IN HOME
From the Oregonian, September 11, 1997
Three Gresham police officers shot and killed a 55-year-old Southeast Portland woman Wednesday morning after she barged into the house of her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend and tried to kill her.
The woman died from multiple gunshot wounds in the driveway of a house in the 2300 block of Northeast Fleming Terrace, a block from Hall Elementary School.
Police said the woman, whose name wasn’t released pending notification of relatives, was killed after firing at least one shot from a small caliber handgun at officers who were responding to a 9-1-1 call.
Police said the woman came to the house armed with a gun because of a relationship among the woman, her ex-boyfriend, Leroy J. Bussey, and Angela Deniece Shaw, the woman she threatened to kill Wednesday morning.
Shaw, 23, lived with her parents and her two young children in the quiet, tidy house. Bussey was the assailant’s boyfriend for several years, and the two had purchased cars and property together. Bussey’s father said the couple broke up about six months ago.
Neighbor Kim Fleming said Bussey, known as “Skip,” was dating Shaw and had lived in the house for a time.
Fleming, who said she was a good friend of Shaw’s, said she talked to the young woman after the shooting and was told this account of events:
The woman arrived at the house when Shaw was getting her 6-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter dressed for the day. She was let into the house by Shaw’s mother. The woman immediately started screaming, accusing Angela Shaw of stealing her boyfriend.
“Angie heard her and said `Don’t believe her, Mom. It’s all lies,’ “ Fleming said. That’s when the 325-pound intruder grabbed the 165-pound Shaw and pinned her against the wall. The woman pulled a gun and put it to Shaw’s head and tried to pull the trigger. The gun’s safety was on, so it did not fire.
Shaw ran into her bedroom and locked the door. Her attacker flicked off the safety and began firing through Shaw’s locked door.
Gresham Police Department spokesman Sgt. David Lerwick said Angela Shaw escaped out a back window and ran to a neighbor’s house to call 9-1-1.
Meanwhile, Fleming said, Shaw’s mother, Patricia Gail Shaw, herded her grandchildren out a sliding glass door and called 9-1-1 with a portable phone at 7:51 a.m.
Fleming said the woman left the house and the door locked behind her. Other witnesses said the woman reloaded her handgun outside and began walking toward her car, parked about four houses away.
The woman was confronted by three Gresham police officers and she fired at least one round at them, according to Lerwick. They shot back.
A man who lived across the street, Patrick MacQuire, said he had just opened the door for his 12- and 14-year-old daughters, who were on their way to a bus stop on Northeast 23rd Street, when he heard gunshots.
“At first I thought it was firecrackers set off by kids at the bus stop,” MacQuire said. “Then there was a bunch of shots fired in quick succession, and I knew someone was shooting . I pushed the girls back in the house.”
MacQuire said when the shooting stopped, he peered around the corner of his house and saw three officers with their guns drawn and a woman lying in a driveway.
“One of the officers walked over to her and kicked the gun out of her hand,” MacQuire said. “I could tell she was dead.”
Jerry Small, who lives about half a block away, said he heard six to eight shots in rapid succession.
“It sounded like a machine gun,” Small said.
Lerwick said no schoolchildren were in danger. Fleming Terrace is a residential street just west of Hall Elementary School. There is also a group home for disabled children on the street.
Janis L. Hardman, a Portland lawyer who worked with the dead woman at a Portland law firm and then later contracted with her for other legal work, called her “bright, but troubled.”
She said the woman worked for the large firms and did quite a bit of overflow work after hours and worked out of her home.
“She really didn’t have a lot of friends,” Hardman said. “She wore them out . . . she had a tumultuous life. She was a sad person.”
Hardman said the woman was also very close to and protective of her two sons.
Bussey, 52, drove by Shaw’s house about 30 minutes after the shooting .
Police stopped him for questioning in connection with the shooting and discovered he was wanted for violating parole on an armed robbery conviction. He faces no charges in Wednesday’s events but was booked into the Justice Center Jail.
The woman’s 22-year-old son, interviewed at his mother’s house in the 3800 block of Southeast Lafayette Court in Portland, said he was acquainted with Angela Shaw and her parents but said his mother did not know them.
Clark Bussey of Klamath Falls said the woman used to date his son, Leroy Bussey, and later befriended his wife, Katherine, even after she broke up with his son.
“They visited on the phone quite a lot,” Bussey said. “Katherine was an invalid and the calls cheered her up.”
Bussey’s wife died of heart disease last month. He said the woman was “nice” and “a real good” legal secretary who came to his house on one occasion.
Lerwick said the names of the three officers involved would be released Thursday. All three officers were interviewed by detectives and put on paid administrative leave.
Police used aircraft to photograph the crime scene from above while detectives from the East Multnomah County Major Crimes Team conducted their investigation and conferred with members of the Multnomah County district attorney’s office.
The last Gresham police shooting was in August 1994 when police shot and killed a woman inside the Gresham Fred Meyer store. The woman had a history of mental illness and lunged at police with a large knife.
WOMAN SAID SHE’D KILL POLICE OR DIE
From the Oregonian, September 12, 1997
Judy Hinch used to tell her friends that if the police ever tried to arrest her, she would take them out or die trying.
Wednesday morning, Hinch, a 55-year-old legal secretary who led a sad and troubled life, kept that promise, dying in a hail of police gunfire after she fired a .22-caliber handgun at three Gresham police officers.
“I always thought she was a great lady,” said Angela Shaw, 23, describing the woman who tried to kill her Wednesday morning.
Hinch came to Shaw’s house to have it out with the younger woman over a man — Hinch’s ex-boyfriend, Leroy “Skip” Bussey, 52.
Shaw said she didn’t think Hinch came intending to kill her. But a confrontation between the two women escalated quickly from screaming to shooting.
Shaw described her ordeal Thursday, 24 hours after Hinch arrived at her parents’ house on Northeast Fleming Terrace.
Bussey, a wanted felon who spent 13 of the past 15 years in prison for armed robbery and bank robbery, was living with Hinch in her Southeast Portland home until about a week ago.
Shaw said the romance between Hinch and Bussey had evolved into a business relationship. She said the pair bought used trailer homes together, refurbishing them and then selling them for a profit.
“She was in love with him,” Shaw said. “But he was trying to fade out of their intimate relationship. They were supposed to move to a trailer they bought together in Klamath Falls, until I said to Skip, `Hey, baby.’”
Neighbors said Bussey was a frequent visitor to Shaw’s house, where she lived with her parents and her two children.
By late last weekend, it was obvious to Hinch that she was losing her hold on Bussey. She threw him out and let another friend of Shaw’s, Mike Cordray, move in.
It was Cordray who drove Hinch to Shaw’s neighborhood Wednesday morning.
Shaw said Hinch called her last week to ask about her relationship with Bussey. During the conversation, Shaw said that Hinch seemed to be understanding and even said she had no hard feelings.
“I thought, `Great,’” Shaw said. “But she was still jealous of me.”
Soon after that telephone call, Hinch asked Bussey to move out of her house. Bussey continued to see Shaw, and for the last week he visited Shaw when Shaw’s parents weren’t home.
Bussey had just dropped Shaw and her children off at her mother’s one-story gray house on Fleming Terrace on Wednesday morning after a night at a friend’s house when Hinch showed up at her door, angry and armed.
Shaw said she heard her mother talking to Hinch in the kitchen. She dressed her son for school, and then interrupted the conversation between the two women.
Shaw and Hinch began to argue. Hinch grabbed Shaw’s face and pinned her against a wall.
“Please let her go,” Shaw’s mother pleaded.
Shaw backed into her bedroom and sat on the bed. Hinch pulled the gun, and from less than five feet away, raised it and pointed it at Shaw’s face.
Then she tried to pull the trigger.
“My heart stopped,” Shaw said.
Hinch, realizing the gun’s safety was still on, fiddled with it and said to Shaw, “What? You don’t think I’ll do it?’”
Shaw didn’t wait to see, she said. She slammed and locked her door, and then jumped out the window and ran to her next-door neighbor’s house to call police.
Hinch fired through the door; police later recovered two slugs from the wall.
Patricia Shaw — who by this time was on the back porch and on the phone with 9-1-1 — pleaded with Hinch to leave. Shaw’s two children were with her.
“She told my mom, `I have no place to go,’ “Shaw said, “but mom told her she had to leave. The police were coming.”
Hinch walked to the front door, paused and reloaded the gun, and then stepped out. She turned and tried to reopen the door, but it was locked.
So Hinch starting walking down the street, to the sound of the sirens from approaching police cars.
“She just walked down the road like there was nothing wrong,” Shaw said. “When I heard the shots, I knew she was going to die. She always told us she would. And she did.”
GRESHAM POLICE NAME 3 OFFICERS IN SHOOTING
From the Oregonian, September 12, 1997
The Gresham Police Department on Thursday identified the three policemen who shot and killed a 55-year-old Southeast Portland woman.
The officers involved in the shooting were James Kalbasky, 43, an 18-year veteran of the department; Paul Poitras, 39, a 17-year veteran; and Robert Haphey, 45, a 10-year veteran.
All three officers fired their guns at Judith Irene Hinch shortly before 8 a.m. Wednesday after she shot at them with a .22-caliber handgun in the 2300 block of Northeast Fleming Terrace.
Hinch, a legal secretary who friends said had a troubled and tumultuous life, stormed into a house nearby, threatening to kill her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend, Angela Deniece Shaw, 23. Shaw escaped out a back window as Hinch began shooting through a bedroom door.
The three policemen shot Hinch about four houses away when she confronted them on the way to her car.
The Multnomah County medical examiner’s office said Thursday that Hinch died of multiple gunshot wounds by “legal intervention.” Officials would not say where Hinch was struck or by how many bullets.
The three officers were placed on paid administrative leave and have the option of talking with counselors.
Sgt. David Lerwick, Gresham police spokesman, said the types and caliber of the weapons used by the officers are being withheld until the investigation is finished. Gresham police own their own weapons, but the department dictates the caliber, make and manufacturer of the handguns officers can carry. Lerwick said the city is changing its weapons policy next month when the department will issue all officers either 9 mm or .40-caliber semiautomatic handguns.
“Some officers may opt to retain their own personal duty weapons,” Lerwick said.
POLICE SHOOTING OF WOMAN RULED JUSTIFIED
From the Oregonian, September 23, 1997
Three Gresham Police officers were justified in fatally shooting a 55-year-old Southeast Portland woman earlier this month, a Multnomah County grand jury decided Monday.
Police shot Judith Irene Hinch 11 times after she pointed and fired a .22-caliber handgun at them in a driveway in the 2300 block of Northeast Fleming Terrace on Sept. 10.
The officers involved in the shooting were James Kalbasky, 43, an 18-year veteran of the department; Paul Poitras, 39, a 17-year veteran; and Robert Haphey, 45, a 10-year veteran.
“You have close ones and ones that are not so close,” said assistant district attorney Diane Rea, who presented the case to a grand jury. “This one was not so close.”
Rea said there was no way to determine which one of the 11 shots that struck Hinch was the fatal wound, but at least two of the rounds would have killed her. Ballistics tests to determine where each individual officer’s rounds struck Hinch were not completed.
Hinch, a legal secretary who friends said had a troubled and tumultuous life, stormed into a house nearby, threatening to kill her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend, Angela Deniece Shaw, 23. Shaw escaped out a back window as Hinch began shooting through a bedroom door.
The three policemen shot Hinch about four houses away when she confronted them on the way to her car. The grand jury decided that the officers were justified in their use of deadly force when Hinch fired at them.
Gresham Police Chief Bernie Giusto said he talked with all three officers individually and as a group the day of the shooting. As a show of support, Giusto went to the courthouse Monday morning.
“It’s still the most unfortunate part of police work,” Giusto said of the shooting. “There is an increasing presence of firearms in the community . . . we’re seeing a lot more of it in Gresham.”
Giusto said the three officers were “amazingly composed, but visibly shaken” after the incident.
“I told them we treat these kind of things like a family,” Giusto said. “They’re not alone . . . it’s a part of the profession nobody likes but we know has to be.”
All three officers, who have been on paid administrative leave since the shooting, were anxious to be back at work, Giusto said. They were expected back on the job later this week, after some additional debriefing.
Giusto said Hinch was carrying — one of 14 guns that had been reported stolen from a Southeast Portland couple’s home over the Labor Day weekend.
Another stolen gun was found in her car, and 11 more were discovered in her Southeast Portland home, where she lived with her son, 22-year-old Collins Hinch.
Three of the stolen guns were recovered from a car driven by Leroy “Skip” Bussey, 52, a former boyfriend of Hinch. Bussey was arrested the morning of the shooting and jailed for violating his federal parole for armed robbery. He remains in the Justice Center Jail.
The last of the stolen guns turned up over the weekend in connection with a robbery in Oregon City.
Gresham police said the guns had been turned over to Portland police detectives for further investigation.
Shaw, 23, the woman police said Hinch tried to kill, was arrested and cited Friday on forgery charges. Police said someone using a stolen credit card purchased a $100 gift certificate from a local retail store. When Shaw arrived to pick up the certificate, she was arrested, cited and released.
GRESHAM POLICE SHOOTING INCIDENT ENDED A TROUBLED LIFE
From the Oregonian, January 1, 1998
No one may ever know what finally caused Judy Hinch, a troubled 55-year-old legal secretary, to point a handgun at police after she tried to kill a boyfriend’s new girlfriend.
But on that Wednesday morning, Sept. 10, Hinch was killed by at least 11 shots fired by three Gresham police officers who responded to Northeast Fleming Terrace.
Just moments before, Hinch had burst into the home of Angela Shaw, and after exchanging words with Shaw and her mother, began shooting through Shaw’s bedroom door.
Then she calmly walked down the street and confronted police, who later said Hinch was carrying a .22-caliber handgun stolen from a Southeast Portland couple’s home just weeks before.
“When I heard the shots, I knew she was going to die,” Angela Shaw said.
A grand jury later determined that Gresham Police officers James Kalbasky, Paul Poitras and Robert Haphey had been justified in shooting Hinch.
The last Gresham police shooting was in August 1994 when police shot and killed a woman inside the Gresham Fred Meyer store.