Portland Police Told Aaron Campbell's Mother he Committed Suicide - when in fact police shot him, court records say

From [HERE] Marva Davis, who lost two sons on Jan. 29, 2010, said in court documents filed this week that her grief was compounded when two Portland officers came to her house that night and told her that Aaron Campbell had committed suicide --when in fact her 25-year-old son had been fatally shot in the back by a Portland officer. 

"I could not and cannot understand why the police would misrepresent the facts of my son's death," Davis wrote in an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court.  Holding the religious belief that committing suicide condemned the soul, Davis suffered heart palpitations and was taken to the hospital that night.  That morning she had lost her 23-year-son to heart and kidney failure. 

She further alleges that Portland police engaged in harassing, hostile and deceptive behavior that included surveillance of other relatives for over two months after the shooting. 

Attorneys for the family are seeking any police reports and depositions of officers who may be related to the allegations. They're also seeking the identity of a confidential informant who told police March 2, 2010, that Campbell's uncle allegedly offered a $5,000 bounty for the assassination of Officer Ronald Frashour, the officer who killed Campbell with a single shot from an AR-15 rifle. Frashour has since been fired. 

But the city of Portland is challenging the discovery requests and seeking a protective order to prevent their release, saying they're not relevant to the family's pending federal wrongful death lawsuit against the city and its officers. 

"The court need not consider information obtained in the investigation of an alleged offer of money in exchange for the murder of the shooting police officer reported to the police approximately one month after the police shooting at issue," wrote David Landrum, deputy city attorney. " 

Further, the city argues in court papers that it's impossible for Campbell's estate, the named plaintiff, or Campbell, to have experienced any emotional distress from police activity after the shooting. "The estate itself, as an abstract concept, simply cannot experience any emotional response," Landrum wrote.  

Each side's lawyers are scheduled to argue the issues by phone this morning before federal Judge Michael W. Mosman. A transcript will be available at a later date, a court clerk said. 

A March 2, 2010, Portland police special report, which Frashour's attorney produced, says an informant met with a Portland officer that day, and told the officer that Campbell's uncle, who goes by the street name "Poo" and would be released from federal prison days later, was offering a $5,000 bounty for anyone who would kill Frashour, and the uncle's girlfriend was shopping around for someone interested, possibly among the Blood gang. The report is typed, but not signed by any officer. A third page says Officers Dan Chastain and Chad Gradwahl met with the informant, the lieutenant of the Criminal Intelligence Unit was asked to develop a "protection package," and the district attorney's office and a federal prosecutor were notified. 

In her affidavit, Campbell's mother dismissed the police intelligence, and plaintiffs indicate that the city has admitted the bounty inquiry has been dropped. 

"This was truly shocking as no one in my family had expressed any such idea or plan, which I would have condemned and stopped if anyone expressed such a foolish idea," Davis wrote in her affidavit. 

She described a series of intimidating and "negative interactions" between her family members and police after her son's shooting death. 

"It is a common perception in the Portland black community that the police will retaliate against anyone who challenges their authority," Davis wrote. 

 She recounted these incidents occurring in 2010: a police car sitting in front of her youngest son's apartment on March 18, and two police cars converging on her son's vehicle for no apparent reason when he drove into the lot of an Olive Garden; a March 29 arrest of her nephew for failing to pay fines in Washington County; on April 1, her brother was approached by someone wanting to know if he could be paid the $5,000 reward money he heard the family was offering to kill Frashour; her brother's girlfriend said she was arrested by Portland police for a failure to appear on a Washington County theft warrant, and then accused by police of being involved in the Frashour death threat; her oldest son getting rousted by police April 2 and repeatedly questioned about the "East County barbecue Campbells"; and an April 18 family picnic in which relatives thought a plain-clothed officer was furtively taking photos. 

Frashour shot Campbell as he emerged from a Northeast Portland apartment at police request, with his back toward officers and his hands behind his head. Another officer first fired six beanbag rounds at Campbell, trying to get him to put his hands in the air. The chief and Mayor Sam Adams fired Frashour and issued 80-hour unpaid suspensions to Ryan Lewton and two sergeants, saying they botched the response to an encounter that appeared to have calmed down. They found Frashour's use of force inappropriate because Campbell was not posing an immediate threat of death or physical injury.