Mental Health Association of Portland

By Rebecca Woolington, The Oregonian, Dec. 29, 2012

Jeffery David Anderson

A Washington County sheriff’s deputy and sergeant were justified in their fatal shooting of an Aloha man who pointed a loaded rifle at them in July, the Washington County District Attorney’s Office determined this month.

Shortly before 8:15 p.m. on July 7, sheriff’s deputies responded to reports of a man armed with a rifle walking along Southwest 195th Avenue near Farmington Road in Aloha. Multiple people told 9-1-1 operators that the man was pointing the weapon at neighbors and passing vehicles.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Chad Lotman and Deputy Brian Wood were some of the first authorities to arrive at the incident, wrote Chief Deputy District Attorney Roger Hanlon in a letter upholding the shooting to Sheriff Pat Garrett. They found the man, whom they identified as 56-year-old Jeffery David Anderson, standing in 195th Avenue with the firearm. Read the rest of this entry »

From the Oregonian, July 30, 2012

“Get off the property,” Jeffery David Anderson told his wife, Susan. Moments later, he fired his .22-caliber rifle toward the sky. Then again.

Susan Anderson was familiar with her husband’s erratic behavior. She had moved in with a friend for a few days after arguing with him, but, needing clothing, returned July 7 to the Aloha home the couple had shared for 30 years. Faced with another argument and the gun, she left.

An hour later, Jeffery David Anderson, 56, lay dying in the street, shot by Washington County sheriff”s deputies. Neighbors and deputies say Anderson had walked along Southwest 195th Avenue near his home, pointing his loaded rifle at passing vehicles, and ultimately at deputies.

His death, which came a few hours later at OHSU Hospital, is the latest chapter in a series of shootings by police agencies responding to mental health-related calls in the Portland metropolitan area.

For example, Washington County sheriff’s deputies in June fatally shot Robert Kimball Fox, 52, of Aloha, who authorities say was suicidal and had pointed a loaded rifle at deputies. Portland police officers in January fatally shot Brad Lee Morgan, 21, who officials said was threatening to jump off a downtown parking structure and eventually pointed a fake gun at officers.

Authorities responding to mental health-related calls — especially when weapons are introduced — must make split-second decisions in unpredictable scenarios, said Washington County Sheriff Pat Garrett. Police can’t dodge bullets and de-escalate a situation simultaneously, he said.

“When you introduce a gun or weapon, that changes everything,” he said.

Jeffery Anderson was a severely depressed alcoholic who began pulling away from his wife and family during the past year. Susan Anderson described a pattern of unpredictable behavior. One moment, he apologized for his drinking. The next, he was angry.

His family struggled to deal with a husband, father, brother, who was spiraling into deeper depression and alcoholism. They loved him, but they didn’t know when or how to help. Now, his family says, they are stuck with a stark truth: It’s too late.

The night of the shooting, Susan Anderson sat in a detective’s car as she learned what happened to her husband.

“Never in my whole marriage would I have thought that…,” the 55-year-old later said, failing to complete the sentence as she started to cry. “Something in him snapped.”

For more than 15 years, Jeffery Anderson cleaned up spilled lunches and mopped floors as a custodian at Hillsboro’s Minter Bridge Elementary School. At his funeral, members of the school’s staff presented the family with a scrapbook of photographs and notes on colored paper about his helpfulness and warm personality.

The couple married 35 years ago, moving into their Aloha home five years later. They had two daughters, Sarah and Stephanie. Jeffery Anderson’s relationship with them, his wife said, could be rocky.

He loved to play with his five grandchildren, who knew him as “papa.” His sister, Kathy Milberger, 50, described her brother as a protector, and five years ago, she moved to Beaverton to be closer to him.

He enjoyed camping, trips to the coast and listening to music, especially Bob Marley. He wrote poetry.

He was a talker, but, at the same time, a loner. He pinched pennies and was a pack rat, stashing away belongings for years.

“It was hard for him to let go of things,” his wife said.

Sensitive and patriotic, Jeffery Anderson was deeply troubled by the state of America, what he saw as societal values in decline as banks and big business were on the rise. He sobbed when the first troops were killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“He needed to push it away,” Susan Anderson said. “He didn’t like to hear about all the people dying all the time.”

He talked about the issues so much, she said, “It got to where I couldn’t listen anymore.”

In the past year, Jeffery Anderson’s drinking noticeably increased. He’d have beers at home in the evening, growing more and more depressed.

For at least a year, he was prescribed an anti-depressant, citalopram, but in the months before the shooting, he wasn’t taking it consistently.

“I always thought he’d snap out of it,” Susan Anderson said. “But he didn’t.”

She thinks her husband purchased the rifle about a year ago. Leading up to the shooting, Jeffery Anderson mentioned the weapon more frequently. He bragged about the gun, talked about how it worked and his need to protect his property.

Yet Susan Anderson never felt afraid. “I guess I should have been,” she said.

“He was dwelling on everything negative,” she said, growing emotional. “Instead of being grateful for how good our lives are.”

Milberger said her brother would sometimes mention suicide, but never talked specifically about hurting himself.

“He felt as if he was going to die young,” she said.

Two days before his death, Jeffery Anderson left work early and went home. When one of his daughters stopped by that day, he was intoxicated, his wife said. He behaved strangely, showing his firearm to his grandchildren.

“Something’s wrong with papa,” the children told their mother.

At home, his daughter reflected on her dad’s behavior, and called police to have deputies check on him. The sheriff’s office said deputies on July 5 responded to a report that Jeffery Anderson was suicidal.

Deputies talked with Anderson at his home and took him to a hospital for further treatment. Susan Anderson said she wasn’t aware of her husband making any suicidal statements.

Jeffery Anderson was taken to Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, where he was evaluated and released four hours later, his wife said. Federal privacy laws prohibit the hospital from releasing when he was admitted and discharged, or the reasons for his release, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

After his release, Anderson was angry that police were called and he had been hospitalized.

That anger bled into the next days. On July 6, Susan Anderson tried calling him; he didn’t answer the phone. Milberger stopped by to check on her brother. She knocked. Nothing. She called. No answer.

She tried the door, and it was unlocked, she said. She found Jeffery Anderson asleep in bed.

Susan Anderson went to her home the next day, July 7. She tried to calm him down. “I kept saying Jeff, honey, I didn’t call the police,” she said.

Later that night, when she learned her husband had been shot and wounded, Susan Anderson broke down inside the detective’s car. Initially, authorities told her they thought Jeffery Anderson would make it, then they told her he had died.

Milberger interprets her brother’s actions that day as suicide by cop.

His wife and sister aren’t mad or bitter toward deputies. They hurt because they know that day changed everyone involved. Jeffery Anderson is gone. Life won’t be the same for his survivors or for the deputies who shot him.

They wanted to help their brother and husband. They wish the hospital had kept him longer. They wish they could have forced him to get help.

They were planning an intervention, but the fear that he would become enraged kept them from reaching out.

“Never wait that long,” Milberger said. “You need to catch something, intervene way sooner than we did.”

Aloha man fatally shot by Washington County deputies

From KGW.com, July 8, 2012

Deputies in Washington County fatally shot a man they said was armed with a rifle Saturday night in Aloha.

Several 911 callers reported a man with a gun wandering around on SW 195th Avenue, near SW Farmington Road, according to Sgt. David Thompson of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.

“I looked out and sure enough there’s a guy standing there with a rifle,” neighbor Jim Briggs told KGW. “I watched him walk up and down the street a couple of times with it, so I went upstairs and called.”

The man was still there when deputies got there.

“At least two deputies arrived on the scene and encountered a 54-year-old man armed with a rifle,” Thompson said. “Within a few minutes of their arrival, two of the deputies fired at the armed suspect.”

Briggs said the man actually pointed his rifle at the deputies.

“He was standing behind this car,” Briggs said. “He pointed the gun at them and I heard two shots.”

Jeffery David Anderson, 56, of Aloha, was taken to a Portland hospital, where he died Sunday morning from injuries suffered in the shooting.

The deputies involved were placed on administrative leave. Additional details on the shooting were not available.

Washington Co. deputies fatally shoot man in Aloha

From KOIN.com

A man was shot by two Washington County Sheriff’s Deputies Saturday night in Aloha after reports the man had been walking down the street with a gun.

Officials said Jeffery David Anderson, 56, from Aloha, died Sunday morning at OHSU from his injuries.

Washington County Sheriff’s Office spokesman, Sgt. Dave Thompson, said at 8:13 p.m. Saturday night calls started coming in about a man walking down Southwest 195th Avenue near Farmington Road in Aloha toting a gun.

Thompson said deputies were on scene within a few minutes and made contact with Anderson.

“It’s a warm night, this guy’s walking around with a gun and obviously we got a lot of phone calls about it,“ Thompson said.

Neighbors tell KOIN Local 6 they heard several gunshots follow by deputies telling them to stay inside their homes.

A witness said the deputies shot the man after he ignored their commands.

Officials would only confirm two deputies had been involved in the shooting, and said the suspect was the only one injured.

Thompson said the suspect was taken to OHSU but did not know his condition Saturday night.

Aloha man who was killed by deputies had aimed rifle at officers, a neighbor says

From the Oregonian, July 8, 2012

An Aloha man shot and killed by two Washington County sheriff’s deputies was described as unstable by a neighbor Sunday.

Jim Briggs called 9-1-1 Saturday night after a passing motorcyclist told Briggs’ mother-in-law to go inside Briggs’ house because the motorcyclist had seen a man carrying a gun down Southwest 195th Avenue. Others in the neighborhood had also called 9-1-1 about the man.

After securing his children in the back of the house, Briggs watched out his glass front door as his neighbor, Jeffery David Anderson, sat on the curb across from Briggs’ house and pointed a rifle toward cars driving along Southwest 195th Avenue south of Farmington Road.

He said Anderson, 56, who lived two doors down on the same side of the street, was talking to himself and seemed drunk. Then he saw Anderson aim the rifle at an area where neighborhood kids normally play in the road, although Briggs could not tell whether children were present.

At one point, Anderson sat down and took apart what Briggs described as an assault rifle with a banana clip, and then put it back together.

Deputies responded to Briggs’ call around 8:13 p.m., and according to police, several deputies arrived on the scene and confronted Anderson.

Within a few minutes of the deputies’ arrival, Briggs said, Anderson took aim at them, and two officers fired back.

Briggs said he heard the shots, which he described as “pops,” and saw Anderson lying on his back in the street.

He said the general feeling in his family was the man was “someone you didn’t want to mess with.”

He said Anderson would make “grumbling” noises at Briggs’ wife whenever she walked the dogs past his house.

After Anderson was shot he was taken to OHSU Hospital, where he died early Sunday, according to the Multnomah County medical examiner’s office.

The two deputies who shot Anderson were placed on paid administrative leave, according to Sgt. David Thompson, a Washington County sheriff’s spokesman.

Thompson declined further comment on the case, and said detectives and the county’s district attorney’s office will continue to investigate the incident.

Neighbor: Man shot by deputies was suffering from mental issues

From KATU.com, July 8, 2012

A 56-year-old man shot by Washington County sheriff’s deputies later died of his injuries.

Jeffery David Anderson, of Aloha, died Sunday morning at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) after he had been shot Saturday night.

The incident began around 8:15 p.m. on Southwest 195th Avenue, just south of Farmington Road.

Deputies had responded there on a report of a man with a gun and within a few minutes of their arrival, they fired at the armed suspect.

No further details about what transpired in those minutes have been released but neighbors said the man had been threatening people.

“(He was) walking down the road with a rifle with a big clip and supposedly pointing the rifle at children,” said Ricky Glen, who lives in the area. “Very disturbed, obviously, shouting out different kinds of things.”

“They were telling him to get on the ground, so I guess he acted like he was getting on the ground,” Glen added. “(He) picked the rifle back up, pointed at the cops, pulled the trigger and the gun jammed. So the cops got lucky.”

The sheriff’s office said this was the second time they had been called to the man’s house within a few days but would not comment on what the previous incident was about.

Next-door neighbor Sherry Statler said deputies had also been called out there a few months ago and that Anderson had been struggling with mental issues lately, which is what led his family to call the sheriff’s office in the past.

“I heard depression,” she said. “I heard that he was on some medication and they were concerned that he had taken too much. It’s kind of sad because he was a great guy and he tried really hard to, you know, do right by his family and everything. I’m sorry to hear it went bad for him.”

“He was a great neighbor,” she added. “He was always caring for – when we’d go on vacation, he’d take out our garbage. He was always looking after our home.”

Statler said she also talked with Anderson’s wife, who only found out what had happened when she got home and came across the police scene.

“(She was) so upset and so surprised,” she said. “I mean, you could just see she had no idea it was going to go so badly for him.”

Anderson’s family was too upset to talk to the media on Sunday. They are still trying to figure out why he went out into the street with a gun in the first place.

The shooting remains under investigation and two deputies involved in the incident are on administrative leave.

Aloha man shot by deputies died of gunshot wound to chest, abdomen, according to medical examiner’s office

From the Oregonian, July 09, 2012

An Aloha man who was shot by Washington County sheriff’s deputies Saturday night died of a gunshot wound to his right chest and abdomen, according to the state medical examiner’s office.

Jeffery David Anderson, 56, was pronounced dead early Sunday morning at OHSU hospital, according to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office. Two deputies fired at Anderson, who authorities say was armed with a rifle, but the sheriff’s office hasn’t released how many shots were fired or how many times Anderson was struck.

Sgt. Bob Ray, a sheriff’s office spokesman, said deputies on Thursday responded to a call reporting that Anderson was suicidal. Deputies, Ray said, contacted Anderson at his home and they took him to a local hospital for further treatment. Ray wasn’t sure who called police during that incident.

Shortly before 8:15 p.m. Saturday, people began calling 9-1-1 reporting a man armed with a gun on Southwest 195th Avenue, south of Southwest Farmington Road, said Sgt. David Thompson, a sheriff’s office spokesman.

Anderson’s neighbor, Jim Briggs, said he called 9-1-1 Saturday night after a passing motorcyclist told Briggs’ mother-in-law to go inside Briggs’ house because the motorcyclist had seen a man carrying a gun down 195th Avenue.

Briggs said he watched out his door as Anderson, whom he described as unstable, sat on the curb across from Briggs’ house and pointed a rifle toward cars driving along 195th Avenue. He said Anderson, who lived two doors down on the same side of the street, was talking to himself and seemed drunk.

At least two deputies reportedly arrived shortly after the calls and found the man, armed with a rifle. Within a few minutes of the deputies’ arrival, Briggs said, Anderson took aim at them, and two officers fired back.

The sheriff’s office has not confirmed whether Anderson pointed the weapon at deputies. After Anderson was shot, he was taken to OHSU Hospital, where he later died.

The two deputies who shot Anderson were placed on paid administrative leave, Thompson said. They have not yet been identified, and Ray wasn’t sure when they will be interviewed.

The sheriff’s office is not releasing further information, citing the ongoing investigation, which is being conducted by the Washington County Major Crimes Team.

The shooting is the second deputy-involved shooting in Washington County this year. Last month, sheriff’s deputies fatally shot Robert Kimball Fox, 52, of Aloha, after authorities say he pointed a “loaded high-power rifle” at deputies and failed to respond to multiple commands to drop the gun.