Skip to main contentSeven months after the fatal police shooting of 25-year-old Aaron Campbell, a Portland Police Bureau spokeswoman confirms that the officer who fired the fatal rounds from an AR-15 assault rifle has been placed on paid administrative leave.
As first reported on wweek.com, three police sources say the police bureau's Use of Force Review Board recommended firing Officer Ronald Frashour for his role in the Jan. 29 shooting outside the Sandy Terrace Apartments in outer Northeast Portland.
The board, which is made up of police and civilians, also recommended unpaid leave for three other cops at the scene. The board's decisions are considered influential in the discipline process, but the final decision is up to the police chief and Mayor Sam Adams, the police commissioner.
Chief Mike Reese put Frashour on leave after receiving the board's recommendations last week but has not yet made a final decision on discipline, sources say. Lt. Kelli Sheffer, a bureau spokeswoman, confirmed only that Frashour is on paid leave.
Campbell's girlfriend called police to report he was armed and possibly suicidal inside her apartment with three young children. Campbell was unarmed and running away from police outside the apartment when Frashour shot him in the back after he failed to obey police orders.
The shooting caused an uproar among African-American residents and prompted the Rev. Jesse Jackson to hold a rally in a Northeast Portland church. The Albina Ministerial Alliance, a coalition of black pastors and activists, has since called for reforms in the police bureau and the legal system.
Those who protested Campbell's shooting welcomed news of the board's recommendations.
"Every police officer out there is not bad," says Skipper Osborne, former head of the Portland NAACP. "[But] any police officer that was involved in the Aaron Campbell shooting should be fired."
WWeek 2015