Collection of Articles about Police Officers Killed by Semi-Automatic ...

medical help, dragged him to their vehicle. His naked body was placed on the
bumper while officers posed with machine guns for a photo opportunity.
That day Mayor (and Police Commissioner) Vera Katz and Police Chief Charles
Moose held a press conference at the hospital where the officers were being
treated. This dynamic duo attempted to focus attention on everything BUT the
apparently illegal police action that had just taken place. Moose lashed out at local
news crews for covering the event, while Katz called for tighter gun control
policies. When asked if the officers had a search warrant, Moose stopped
answering questions from the press. Police spin-doctor Lt. Cliff Madison would not
comment on why the officers broke down Dons' door. It wasn't reported until two
days later that police claimed the officers smelled marijuana smoke and raided the
home because they feared evidence was being destroyed.
At 4:45 AM on February 25, Dons was found dead in his medical cell at the Justice
Center jail, where he was in custody of the County Sheriff. Although Dons was
suspected of killing a police officer and wounding two others, he was not under
guard. Authorities say they were checking on Dons through a window twice an
hour. Police claim they found a sheet tied around Dons' neck at one end, and
around the bed frame at the other. The official story is that Dons, weighing over
250 pounds and paralyzed from the waist down, tied the sheet around his neck
and bed frame, then rigged the control for his hospital bed (using electrical tape
and a wad of paper) to raise it until he was strangled. No one other than jail staff
ever saw Dons with this alleged contraption in place. There was a surveillance
camera in Dons' cell, but it was conveniently out of order and had toothpaste
smeared over the lens. Some have questioned Dons' ability to kill himself while
not only paralyzed, but heavily medicated.
A state medical examiner determined Dons' death to be a suicide less than 12
hours after the fact. The Sheriff's office, Multnomah County DA, Oregon State
Police, and the FBI were all involved in the subsequent investigation of the
jailhouse death. Their findings, along with a video-taped re-enactment
, were presented to a grand jury, who unanimously found
Dons' death to be a suicide. Fully convinced after hearing the testimony of the
police and the police-friendly District Attorney, grand jury foreman Paul Driscoll
stated: "[T]here will always be some people who will question our findings, but we
are satisfied that there is no reasonable doubt that the death of Steven Dons was
a suicide."
Indeed, there are many people who seriously doubt this sequence of cookie-cutter
findings exonerating the police. Even the usually uncritical Oregonian called for an
independent inquiry into the death. The day of Dons' death, call-in radio shows
were abuzz with public outrage and disbelief. Even on the most mainstream
stations, civilians called in to voice suspicions that police were somehow involved
in Dons' death.
Whether this was the case or not, there is no denying that they had both motive
and opportunity to do so. Aside from the crude purpose of revenge for Colleen
Waibel, silencing Dons would have ensured that his version of the events on
January 27th would never see the light of day. Dons' lawyers will not relate his
version of events, citing attorney-client privilege. Officer Kim Keist was "relieved"
when she learned of Dons' mysterious death. Jim McIntyre, senior deputy DA was
quoted in the March 8 Oregonian as saying "It is ridiculous in this day and age that