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- [S142] Newspaper Article, The Oregonian, 23 May 2016.
Man fatally shot by Oregon City cops struggled with schizophrenia, wasn't violent, brother says
Adam Moore thought there must have been a "heck of a car wreck" when he stopped near his younger brother's Oregon City apartment on Saturday, but he couldn't get to the door because of the yellow caution tape, ambulance and police cars blocking his path. He couldn't find any signs of a crash.
Moore had driven about 30 minutes north from Molalla at the request of his 38-year-old brother, Travis, to give him $20 to buy cigarettes. Once he arrived, calls to the younger brother's phone immediately went to voicemail. The elder brother called their mom, confused that the sibling had apparently turned off his phone knowing the money was coming.
Adam Moore then left and went back home.
"It never even crossed my mind that all those cop cars and other vehicles were there for him," said Adam Moore, 40, on Monday. It wasn't until he called their younger sister later that he learned a man had been shot and killed by police in the area.
He and his mother went to the Molalla Police Department around 5:30 p.m. after being told to do so by a Clackamas County detective responding to their inquiries from a non-emergency 911 line. Detectives at the police station told the mother and son that Travis Moore was the man who died.
Adam Moore said police still haven't told them much about his brother's deadly encounter with two Oregon City police officers. He said he knows they arrived Saturday afternoon to arrest Travis Moore on a warrant for allegedly not appearing in court and that an altercation ensued.
He said he fears officers may not have known his brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2009 or 2008. He worries they were quick to use deadly force instead of trying alternate means to subdue him.
"(Travis) was out of control in a lot of ways, but he didn't mean to be and he didn't want to be," said Adam Moore. "But he wasn't a violent person. He owned no firearms and had no dangerous weapons that I know of. This all just doesn't make sense to any of us."
Oregon City police patrol officers David Plummer and David Edwins are on paid administrative leave following Saturday's shooting in the 200 block of South Second Avenue.
Plummer, who has been with the Oregon City department for five years and has 17 years of experience as an officer, was taken to a hospital with minor injuries after the shooting, according to Oregon City Police Sgt. Matthew Paschall. Edwins, an 11-year police veteran, was not injured.
Both officers were aware of Moore's mental health issues and had received crisis intervention training geared toward people in mental distress, Paschall said.
They arrived to Moore's apartment at 1:40 p.m. to arrest him on suspicion of failing to appear in Oregon City Municipal Court on a harassment accusation, Paschall said. Moore was arrested in January when his next-door neighbor reported the 38-year-old hit him while he was checking his mailbox, called him a gay slur and accused him of stealing his cell phone, according to an Oregon City police report.
The neighbor denied any theft. Moore admitted to officers that he hit his neighbor and used the slur. He claimed the neighbor "used his mind to teleport (Moore's) phone out of his pocket," then later warped it back into Moore's apartment, the report said.
Edwins was one of the three officers who responded to the apartments on that call, and Moore was arrested without incident, the report said.
Moore was supposed to appear in court May 5, but didn't show, according to the Oregon City Municipal Court.
Both officers were aware of Moore's mental health issues, Paschall said, and had received crisis intervention training geared toward people in mental distress. Moore fought with Edwins and Plummer as they tried to arrest him and six minutes after they arrived, the officers radioed that Moore had been shot, Paschall said.
A Taser was used before the shooting, but it didn't stop Moore, Paschall said. Moore died at the scene despite being given first aid for the gunshot wound.
Paschall said only one of the officers opened fire. He said he couldn't say which officer fired, citing an ongoing investigation by the Clackamas County Interagency Major Crimes team. Paschall also declined to release further information about why deadly force was used.
Adam Moore said his brother was once a good father to his two kids and very responsible until he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. The illness made him delusional, paranoid and later caused a rift dividing himself from his teen children and their mother, his older brother said.
He said the family was able to convince Travis to get treatment and medication through Clackamas County a few years ago after he didn't speak or bathe, and often holed himself inside his room while living with his mother. Travis stopped seeing doctors and taking medication in November or December, the older brother said. He said they didn't know until months later when they checked with the county after noticing Moore's behavior become more erratic. He said they didn't know he had been arrested in January.
He said they all begged Travis to resume taking his medication and continue treatment, but he refused.
"He convinced himself that he was fine and that he didn't need any of that anymore," Adam Moore said. "My brother needed help badly and we just couldn't make him do it no matter how hard we tried. Now he's dead and we don't know what to do."
-- Everton Bailey Jr.
ebailey@oregonian.com
503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey
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1977 - 2016 (38 years)
