Portland Police Chief Larry O'Dea was not on a hunting expedition when he shot a friend in the back last month as reported, according to a witness.
Steve Buchtel, who called 911 after O'Dea shot the still-unidentified 54-year-old man April 21, told the Mercury in a brief phone call this afternoon that O'Dea and "a party of us there," were out camping near the tiny town of Fields, Oregon, in Harney County.
Asked what the group was hunting, Buchtel said: "It was a camping trip. There was nothing to hunt. There were just ground squirrels." Asked why O'Dea would have been firing a .22-caliber rifle—as the police bureau says he did—if not to hunt, Buchtel said he wouldn't "go into speculation about what some member of the party did or didn't do."
Buchtel's a retired Portland police lieutenant, and is sticking with a typical police tactic of not commenting on an open investigation (though he's a witness, not an investigating officer). The Oregon Department of Justice and State Police are conducting a criminal investigation on what happened April 21. A Harney County dispatch report shows Buchtel called 911 at 4:37 that afternoon, and arranged to have the victim picked up by helicopter at a store in Fields (population:120).
O'Dea reported the incident to Mayor Charlie Hales four days later, according to the Oregonian. The incident wasn't made public until Friday, when Willamette Week got wind of it—and wound up breaking news of the shooting to the police bureau's head spokesperson.
The ongoing criminal investigation isn't the only one that's begun. The city's Independent Police Review announced today it will conduct its own investigation into what went down.
UPDATE, 4:40 pm: In an odd twist, the Harney County Sheriff now says the shooting was first reported as a self-inflicted wound—to the back—and that he didn't learn otherwise until more than three weeks later. The statement, apparently released as a partial explanation for why all this is just coming to light, says Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward notified state authorities right after he learned that O'Dea was involved.
But that version of events is odd, when compared with the mayor's office's contention that O'Dea admitted to shooting his friend four days after the incident. Sheriff Ward says he didn't hear that news until May 16. It's hard to tell from the release whether Harney County investigators simply didn't inform their boss that was the case, or if Ward thinks there was an attempt to hide the truth of the incident. Here's the full statement.
Update, 5 pm: In case you hadn't assumed as much, O'Dea isn't talking. The PPB says that's not necessarily by choice. According to a statement today, the chief has been muzzled by the police bureau's Professional Standards Division.
Chief O’Dea is unable to offer any comments on the ongoing investigation by the Oregon State Police or the internal investigation. Chief O’Dea has been given a Communication Restriction Order (CRO) by the Bureau’s Professional Standards Division, which is a written order that restricts the Chief from discussing the facts of the case. The issuing of a CRO is standard procedure during any internal investigation.
By the way, O'Dea might not have been hunting during this incident, but his ability to do so in the future, should he want to, might be in jeopardy. Under statute, someone convicted on the misdemeanor charge of negligently wounding another ("Any person who, as a result of failure to use ordinary care under the circumstances, wounds any other person with a bullet or shot from any firearm...") is ineligible for a state hunting license for a decade.
It's more of an honor system thing than anything, though. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife says it has no way to verify someone is ineligible for a license under that law.
A conviction for any crime would also be subject to the PPB's discipline rules, according to spokesperson Sgt. Pete Simpson. The most fitting "category" of discipline for O'Dea's offense also appears to be the most severe, which deals with "any violation of law, rule or policy which: could result in death or
serious bodily injury..."
The presumptive consequence for a violation of this type? Termination.