The Multnomah County District Attorney released transcripts Monday of the testimony that led a grand jury to clear Portland police officers of wrongdoing in the death of Patrick Kimmons.
The grand jury determined last month that the two officers who shot Kimmons acted lawfully in self-defense. Kimmons had shot and injured two people in a downtown parking lot moments before the officers fired on him.
The Portland Police Bureau had previously released the investigative file and video footage from two security cameras overlooking the parking lot where the shooting took place.
The grand jury transcripts released by the district attorney include the officers’ first hand accounts of the shooting.
Sgt. Garry Britt, a supervisor who oversees officers on the night shift for Central Precinct, testified that fights often break out in the downtown Entertainment District early in the morning when the bars and clubs close.
Britt said several small fights had broken out on the night of Sept. 30, and that one caller said they heard somebody say they had a gun.
Around 3 a.m., Britt said he proactively went to to check out a parking lot at Southwest Third Avenue and Harvey Milk Street where fights had started in the past.
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A second officer, Jeff Livingston, was driving by and heard Britt request support on the radio. Livingston joined Britt a few minutes later.
Britt told the grand jury that shortly after Livingston arrived, a group of men started fighting in the parking lot.
“I could see punches being thrown, people, you know, trying to grab at each other,” Britt testified.
Britt said he watched as one man broke away from the group, raised his right hand, and shot the individual he was fighting.
“I immediately saw four little flashes of light coming from the tip and simultaneously heard four gunshots,” Britt said.
Livingston told the grand jury he was shocked to watch a shooting take place while the officers were present, in uniform, next to their marked police cars with the lights on.
“We have an assault at best, maybe a potential homicide, a homicide that just happened in front of us,” he told the grand jury.
Britt said he began following the shooting suspect — Patrick Kimmons — as he ran south along the sidewalk. Britt said he watched as Kimmons put a revolver in the waistband of his pants.
He said Kimmons then turned sharply and headed west, back into the parking lot.
“He’s coming at a fast pace towards me,” Britt said.
Britt said he commanded Kimmons to put his hands up, but instead Kimmons began to pull the revolver out of his waistband.
“I thought I was going to get shot, too, and so I began to fire my firearm while kind of twisting my body away from him to the right. It was just instinct because I was preparing myself to get shot,” Britt told the grand jury. “I fired until I could tell my rounds were having an effect on him. I could see him kind of stumble and go to the ground.”
Livingston also told the grand jury he ordered Kimmons to drop the gun.
“The subject doesn’t drop the gun, and he’s still advancing toward us,” he said.
Homicide Detective Darren Posey investigated the officer-involved shooting and briefed the grand jurors on what he found.
He testified that only about seven seconds elapsed between when Kimmons shot the people he was fighting with and when the officers shot him.
Posey said Britt fired seven rounds, and Livingston fired five rounds.
He also testified that Kimmons' injuries were consistent with officers firing on Kimmons as he was facing them, but beginning to turn away.
Detectives recovered a revolver from underneath a car near the location where Kimmons was shot.
The county medical examiner found that Kimmons was shot nine times. Bullets struck him in the buttocks, legs, groin and chest. The medical examiner’s report indicates that some shots hit him from behind, while others struck Kimmons from the front or side.
The medical examiner testified that Kimmons was likely killed by shots that hit him in the chest.
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According to the officers’ testimony, Kimmons survived the initial shooting. Lying on the ground after he’d been shot, he complied with the officers’ orders to roll over and show them his hands.
The grand jury heard from more than a dozen witnesses. But the two victims Kimmons had allegedly shot were not among those who testified.
Posey told grand jurors that Dante Emanuel Hall and Marcel Branch arrived at Legacy Emmanuel Hospital with gunshot wounds shortly after the shooting.
Hall refused to cooperate with the investigation. Medical records subpoenaed from the hospital showed that Hall had a gunshot wound to the left leg that fractured his femur.
Branch initially cooperated with investigators. One bullet had passed through his right arm and another had passed all the way through his abdomen, injuring his spleen and intestines.
Posey told the grand jury that Branch continued to cooperate with investigators until the week of the grand jury proceeding, and then abruptly stopped responding to calls and texts.
Portland police officers have identified Kimmons as a well-known Rollin 60’s Crips gang member. Letha Winston, Kimmons’ mother, told OPB days after the shooting that her son was working to distance himself from gang activity to focus on his family.