Portland police create special tactical team

By MAXINE BERNSTEIN
The Portland Oregonian
Thursday, November 15, 2007 11:05 AM PST

Portland — Portland police have created a special team of commanders to handle high-risk hostage and tactical situations after a police sniper fatally shot a man in the back while he was on the phone with a police negotiator in 2005.

Portland Police Chief Rosie Sizer outlined a series of changes to the City Council on Wednesday before the council unanimously approved a $500,000 payout to settle a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of Raymond D. Gwerder. The settlement was the city’s largest stemming from a police shooting. Gwerder, 30, was armed, suicidal and had threatened to shoot police on Nov. 4, 2005, if they came inside a Northeast Portland triplex. Officer Leo Besner, a sniper with the Special Emergency Reaction Team, shot him with a .308-caliber rifle while he was talking with a police negotiator about his dog.

“The Portland police response could have been better,” Sizer said. “I cannot guarantee our Police Bureau will always perform perfectly, nor can we control all of the variables. I can, however, ensure our Police Bureau can and will learn as an organization.” Police records showed the hostage negotiator’s supervisor had no idea Gwerder was in the backyard of the triplex, even though several special tactical officers were watching him. There was tension at the scene between East Precinct Cmdr. Mike Crebs, who was leading the operation, and the Special Emergency Reaction Team’s Lt. Joe Stidham on how to run the command post and when to evacuate neighbors, as well as misunderstandings among officers regarding who was assigned to do what.

“The shot just came out of nowhere,” Crebs told investigators. Under a new directive adopted this year, no longer will a precinct commander coordinate operations between the bureau’s Hostage Negotiation Team and Special Emergency Reaction Team.

Instead, specially trained critical incident commanders will handle high-risk cases. Four high-ranking officers — Cmdr. James Ferraris, Cmdr. Bret Smith, Capt. Eric Hendricks and Lt. Larry O’Dea — will serve as those commanders and receive ongoing, specialized training. They will respond every time the negotiating and tactical teams are activated and serve as the point person to coordinate instructions between both teams. Further, the chief has dedicated a full-time sergeant to work with the negotiation team and has the team and sergeant working out of the Tactical Operations Division, where the Special Emergency Reaction Team is based. Previously, the negotiation team was assigned to a separate detective division. The bureau’s new crisis intervention team coordinator, mental health expert Liesbeth Gerritsen, also now is available to assist negotiators on any call out. Training for hostage negotiators has increased from 40 to 80 hours a year. The team also has obtained new equipment, including a special van officers can work out of on the street and a so-called “bionic ear,” a handheld listening device to help officers hear better and negotiate from a distance, said Cmdr. Dave Benson, head of the tactical operations division.

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“I feel that the Police Bureau’s capacity to respond to the higher risk incident is significantly better today because of these changes,” Sizer said. “They are among the changes that I’m most proud of in my year-and-a-half tenure as chief of police.

“The outcome of the events that ended with Mr. Gwerder’s death might have been different had these changes been in place, had our response been more coordinated and communications been improved,” the chief said.

Sizer, though, told commissioners that Besner’s shooting was justified, according to police policy and state law. Attorney Tom Steenson, who represented Gwerder’s family, said the shooting exposed “an extremely flawed police operation.”

He said police evidence showed Gwerder was left lying on the ground dying for at least 17 minutes before he got medical attention. City attorneys disputed that Wednesday, saying that Gwerder did not live more than a couple of minutes after he was shot and that Steenson’s conclusion resulted from an error in a police log.

The log said Gwerder was shot at 4:02 p.m.; complained of pain at 4:05 p.m. and was seen moving at 4:19 p.m., before medics arrived at 4:22 p.m. and declared him dead at 4:25 p.m.

Besner’s single shot struck Gwerder in the back, near the left shoulder blade and traveled through his chest, exiting under his right armpit. The shot severed Gwerder’s heart from his blood vessels.

“It’s regrettable this situation occurred,” Commissioner Dan Saltzman said.

Mayor Tom Potter, a former police chief who serves as police commissioner, praised Sizer for taking steps to improve the bureau and said it’s important to continually monitor and evaluate all police shootings.

Gwerder’s sister, Bobbie Jo Clark, said the family welcomes the settlement but wants Besner off the street.

“While we are relieved that Portland has agreed to settle the case,” Clark said, “there is no end to our loss.”