Portland mayor says decisions before a shooting merit such a rare dismissal
By MAXINE BERNSTEIN
The Oregonian
PORTLAND, Ore. — Mayor Tom Potter, acting in his role as police commissioner, has recommended firing Portland police Lt. Jeffrey Kaer for his “poor judgement and decision-making” leading up to the Jan. 4, 2006, fatal shooting of a suspicious driver outside Kaer’s sister’s home.
Potter, a former Portland police chief, chose the harshest discipline for Kaer, rejecting a four-week suspension without pay recommended by Police Chief Rosie Sizer and members of the Portland Police Bureau’s Use of Force Review Board.
Potter’s move is significant because Portland cops are rarely fired, and when they are, the action is usually reversed by a state arbitrator. It is also unusual that Sizer, who was Kaer’s Southeast Precinct commander at the time of the shooting, did not sign the proposed disciplinary letter. The chief declined comment Wednesday.
Potter said Kaer made at least 10 decisions that violated bureau policies and training leading up to his fatal shooting of 28-year-old Dennis Lamar Young. He found Kaer’s actions constituted “unsatisfactory performance,” precipitated the use of force and violated the bureau’s adopted August 2005 policy against shooting at a moving vehicle.
“Your decision to use deadly force is not at issue in this disciplinary process. Your poor judgement and decision-making leading up to the deadly force decision are the basis for this proposed action,” Potter wrote in a six-page letter he signed Wednesday. “As a member of the command staff of the Bureau, and former training officer, you are expected to model sound decision-making in events like this.”
Assistant Chief Lynnae Berg presented the letter to Kaer on Wednesday and placed him on paid leave. Kaer, a 17-year bureau veteran who has served as a lieutenant since July 2003 and in 1998 was a lead patrol tactics instructor, will contest the proposed firing in a hearing before the mayor. The mayor would then issue his final decision.
Portland Cmdr. Dave Benson, president of the Portland Police Commanding Officers Association, said Kaer can’t understand the mayor’s action. He described Kaer, whose bureau nickname is “Kaer Bear,” as the most “loyal of city employees,” and said the lieutenant is “very, very hurt and dismayed.”
“We think that Lt. Kaer will ultimately be exonerated once the mayor and the chief get some additional information,” Benson said. “We think Lt. Kaer was acting in good faith. He analyzed the situation. He made some decisions and very regretfully it resulted in a shooting. But we don’t feel that should result in termination.”
Young’s mother, Stephanae Ennis, broke down sobbing when told of the mayor’s proposed discipline. “I knew something was so wrong with this,” Ennis said. “I knew the cop was out of line.”
The Jan. 4, 2006, incident began after Kaer received a 2:15 a.m. call from his sister, Brenda Kotsovos. She had noticed a car parked at an angle in front of her home on Northeast 64th Avenue, south of Alameda Street. Two months earlier, Kotsovos’ son, Kaer’s nephew, was shot in the face during a road-rage incident, and the suspect hadn’t been caught. As a result, 9-1-1 dispatchers had flagged Kotsovos’ address for a two-car response.
Kaer, of Southeast Precinct, did not alert emergency dispatchers or anyone in East Precinct, which handles that area, before he went to check out the suspicious car. Potter found Kaer should have allowed dispatchers to send patrol officers to handle the call instead.
When the lieutenant arrived, the mayor said, Kaer told dispatchers his location and asked for cover. But Potter said Kaer failed to broadcast the car’s license plate or nature of the problem. When Kaer pulled up behind the Oldsmobile Cutlass, which was idling with its backup lights on, Kaer didn’t run the car’s license. If he had, as officers are taught, he would have learned it had been stolen. The mayor said Kaer wrongly assumed he was dealing with a passed-out drunken driver in a junker car.
“Officers are taught not to assume,” Potter wrote.
Kaer walked up to the driver’s side before a cover officer arrived and noticed the door lock had been punched out, the steering column broken and the driver had a pry tool in his lap and appeared to have a knife on the seat next to him. “Despite the increasing number of ‘red flags,’ indicating a higher-risk situation, you continued . . . to make contact with the slumped-over driver while alone,” Potter wrote. “Officers are taught to wait for cover.”
Kaer unlocked the door, struck the driver with his palm and reached into the car to place it into park. Potter found that Kaer shouldn’t have reached into the car because officers are taught it can be “inherently risky” in a one-on-one encounter. Kaer grabbed the driver, commanded him to unlatch his seat belt and turn off the car. Young told Kaer he didn’t have keys, and Kaer replied, “Is this a stolen car or something?”
When back-up officer Lawrence Keller arrived, he came to the scene with “little to no information,” Potter found. Young put the car in gear and hit the gas, striking Kaer’s arm as he veered across Northeast 64th Avenue and into a tree. Then he tried to drive off. Kaer and Keller, standing in the street, both drew their handguns. Kaer told investigators the car rapidly backed up, and he feared the car was going to run him down. The lieutenant fired two shots from his 9 mm handgun. Young died from a wound to the upper torso. A Multnomah County grand jury found no criminal wrongdoing.
Benson said Kaer’s actions were “well within reason.” He said officers must make quick decisions on the street that don’t always fit perfectly with the bureau’s tactics. “Tactics are guidelines,” Benson said. “They shouldn’t be construed as rules.”
Robert King, president of the Portland Police Association, said the rank-and-file officers support Kaer. “You can make mistakes leading up to the deadly force. It doesn’t prohibit the use of deadly force,” King said.
Young’s mother said she believes the lieutenant’s motives that night were personal, acting on his sister’s behalf. “How could a lieutenant make that many mistakes unless he was out to send a message, ‘Don’t mess with my family’?”
Copyright 2007 The Oregonian