Grand Jury Says Portland Police Officers’ Use of Deadly Force Was Legal In Fatal Shooting of Patrick Kimmons

Investigation materials released by PPB say Kimmons fired a handgun five times, injuring two other men who had been fighting in the parking lot.

The Portland Spirit and the Portland skyline. (Motoya Nakamura / Multnomah County)

A Multnomah County grand jury today declined to indict the Portland police officers who shot and killed 27-year-old Patrick Kimmons in the early morning of Sept. 30.

Police reports and timelines, released for the first time in the minutes after the grand jury made its decision, say Kimmons shot and injured two people in a downtown fight seconds before police shot and killed him.

"The grand jury's not true bill decision means they have determined no criminal prosecution is warranted," the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office said in a statement, "and that the use of deadly force against Mr. Kimmons by PPB Sergeant Garry Britt and Officer Jeffrey Livingston was a lawful act of self-defense and/or defense of a third person, pursuant to Oregon law."

Video released by the police bureau shows the moments just before and after officers fired their guns.

Britt and Livingston responded to a dispatch call and stepped out of their police vehicles to approach a group of men fighting in a parking lot near SW 3rd Avenue and SW Harvey Milk Street.

Investigation materials released by PPB say Kimmons fired a handgun five times, injuring two other men who had been fighting in the parking lot. Video shows that Kimmons moved toward the officers as they approached.

The officers fired about a dozen shots. Kimmons was pronounced dead at OHSU Hospital.

The killing of Kimmons has sparked a chain reaction of protests that made national news. Protesters of Kimmons' death last month were bumped by a frustrated motorist, then damaged his car. That made national right-wing TV news—and Patriot Prayer protesters disrupted a vigil for Kimmons, starting a rolling downtown brawl.

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