Eugene police shoot man reportedly ‘menacing others’ with shotgun

This story has been updated.

Eugene police on Wednesday, Nov. 12, shot a 40-year-old man they said was armed with a shotgun and reportedly menacing others in the street.

The man sustained injuries that did not appear to be life-threatening and was taken to a hospital for treatment, police said in a statement. The man’s name has not been released.

No injuries to bystanders or officers were reported, Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner said.

The man carrying a shotgun was “walking in and out of traffic, trying to stop traffic, pointing the shotgun at individuals” in the Whiteaker neighborhood, Skinner said in a news conference.

From the 1400 block of Railroad Boulevard onto First Avenue, the man with the shotgun headed east toward Madison Street, where he began walking south toward Second Avenue, Skinner said.

Skinner said he did not have any information that the man actually fired the weapon.

“The investigation will let us know whether or not the suspect fired at any point during the time that he was walking down the street,” Skinner said.

Skinner didn’t say what specifically led an officer to fire at the man, but he noted the presence of Oakshire Brewing’s Public House. The business has a covered outdoor seating area for customers at Second Avenue and Madison Street.

“Second and Madison was an area that we just did not feel like the suspect should be able to go [to] continue in his menacing behavior,” Skinner said.

An officer ordered the man to stop and drop the weapon, and the man “proceeded in some behavior then that resulted in the use of deadly force by an officer,” Skinner said.

The man carried a short-barrel shotgun, Skinner said.

“When you think about an individual walking down the street, many people are thinking about a shotgun you would use for like bird hunting or something like that. That is not this kind of shotgun. This shotgun is very much for personal defense,” Skinner said.

Skinner said a single officer fired at the man from behind a police vehicle, which was parked at Second and Madison.

Skinner said he did not know of any police officers using less-than-lethal weapons against the man before the shooting. The presence of a shotgun required officers to keep their distance from the man for their own safety, Skinner said.

“This is not like approaching somebody with a knife that you can get within, you know, 20 or 30 feet from and be able to do this. We were keeping our distance because this person had a lethal force weapon, and so that’s where less-than-lethal, or less lethal, options sometimes aren’t appropriate,” Skinner said.

Skinner said he did not have other details about what led to the shooting. The use of lethal force means the Lane County Interagency Deadly Force Investigation Team — rather than Eugene police — will investigate the shooting.

“The investigation will reveal the details, and I’m confident that our officers acted appropriately,” Skinner said.

Officers first responded to “seven or eight different calls from citizens” made about 12:30 p.m., Skinner said.

At 12:50 p.m., police shot the man, injuring him, police said in a statement. Skinner said he did not know how many times the man had been shot. Officers recovered a shotgun from the scene, police said.

“The other thing that I point out, though, is this suspect had been walking for a long period of time, putting people in fear of their lives,” Skinner said. “At some point, we have to draw a line that we’re not going to let that happen anymore. We’re not going to let somebody just continue to terrorize our community members with a shotgun.”

After being shot, the man remained conscious, and “officers had to work really really hard, with the cover of a shield, to approach the suspect to be able to de-arm the suspect so we could render first aid,” Skinner said.

Following the interagency investigation, the Lane County District Attorney will review the case to consider whether to file any criminal charges in connection with the use of force.

Eugene police in their statement said additional questions would be referred to the district attorney’s office.

Brian Hayworth, 56, walked with his dog Emmy near the section of Madison Street blocked off by police tape.

Hayworth said he lives in the Whiteaker neighborhood where he grew up, and that there’s “a lot of crazy around here.”

But he’s never seen anybody with a gun, Hayworth said, calling it “pretty surprising” to hear police describe a man walking around with a shotgun.

John Wells, 72, said after the shooting he walked via an alleyway and saw a man lying on his back on a sidewalk.

“He was all disheveled,” Wells said, describing the man as wearing “rough looking clothes” in poor condition.

While on a stretcher to be loaded into an ambulance, the man “hocked a big loogie” on an officer, Wells said. The phlegm landed near the badge of the officer, who just “got a towel and wiped it off,” without saying a word, Wells said.

From what he saw, the injured man “was treated with the utmost respect,” Wells said. “Whoever the guy was, they took care of him.”