Who knows what really happened, but based on the news report it sounds like it was a justified shooting.

The bad guy was armed. The bad guy was a murder/arson suspect. The bad guy had a long rap sheep. The good guys responded to a 911 call, reportedly placed by a murder witness.

The bad guy failed to comply when told to drop his weapon. The bad guy died after making a series of bad decisions.

Good guys live to work another day. 98% of the general public would not have the gonads required to walk toward the bad guy with a gun, and demand his compliance.
Most the remaining 2% would lack the skill and emotional strength to shoot said bad guy in the head. I'll bet that bullet belonged to McCollister, and (if so) he should be congratulated for his grace under pressure. Not villified for having the guts to walk that post.

In case the previous commenters did not notice, Mr. Bogdanski was not passing judgment on the dead guy; he was noting that one of the officers involved, Scott McCollister, has, to say the least, a controversial record. (Kendra James was unarmed and shot while in a car.)

There is a common perception in Portland--one that I share--that there is no meaningful civilian oversight of the police, and that police misconduct nearly always goes unchallenged and unpunished. As though to pour fuel on the fire, in the aftermath of a police shooting, Robert King, the head of the police union invariably trots out another guest editorial in The Oregonian that echoes Mister Tee: civilians just do not understand what it's really like to be a cop etc. And in way, King is right, but it always feels to me as though his real purpose is stonewalling and obstructing meaningful oversight of the police. I'm predicting that King will soon have another piece for The Oregonian about the latest shooting, and that he repeats his standard line.

Yes, being a policeman is a dangerous job. But there are other dangerous jobs, too. If a bunch of miners get killed in a coal-mine collapse, nobody in their right mind is satisfied with an "investigation" by the mine company, which obviously has a stake in minimizing the damage. No, we want an independent investigation. Why should a police shooting not also be investigated by someone other than the officer's friends and colleagues? Seems like common sense to me.

I have no idea whether McCollister fired the shot that killed the guy mentioned in this thread, or whether McCollister was threatened, or any other pertinent detail. Mister Tee doesn't know any of those details either. I'm sorry, but saying that John Q. Public doesn't "have the gonads" to do McCollister's job doesn't cut it as either an explanation or a defense. McCollister is a public employee. Your taxes are paying his salary. His actions should be open for examination no less than the actions of the guy driving a "City That Works" truck on some mundane repair task.

The good thing is we should know what happened very soon. I'm waiting to see if the guy inside the house was shot with Spoor's gun.

The article also mentioned the two officers both fired, and it wasn't clear who's bullet killed him.

I'm guessing he must have made a threatening move to make the two officers make the exact same decision to shoot at nearly the exact same time.

Almost forgot to include this link for those of you who haven't seen it. I think it's a great idea and I hope they move forward with it.

http://wcbstv.com/local/police.handgun.cameras.2.722036.html

i think this blog is a bunch of cull ****. the officer shot him because he felt like it just like he shot that girl. i knew jason spoor and he had his own problems but he did not deserve to be shot in the head that is the most redicule thing i have ever heard... get over yourself. he was a human and there is no proof he was involved in the other homocide....seems to be a power hungry **** to me

Jazmine, see, this is how it works. When cop says "put the gun down". PUT THE GUN DOWN. You do what the cops say, whether you think you are right or not. Sort it all out later. You keep from getting hurt that way. Cops always win the first day.

so cops in this area just shoot people cause they feel like it? i think i better move to another city.

Typical " Hugs not Guns " thought process from the libs....

Ofc. McCollister was wrongly disciplined in the James shooting by pressure from the "bleeding hearts" in this city... This shoot will be ruled justfiable and another waste of human flesh is dust. At least tax dollars will not need to be spent in housing and feeding the piece of trash..

The "ill will" will be fanned by a media looking for relevance. His actions in the past have NO bearing on his actions in this event. For the media to handle the story in the manner they did is typical of what many of us have come to expect from them.

If Officer McCollister did anything wrong in this instance, deal with it. Don't try and create something out of nothing.

joel dan walls makes a well reasoned argument. One that I'm sure he gave considerable thought to and delivered from the security of his home or office computer, and not at the point of a gun. These are all advantages not afforded to police officers under high stress situations.
I have no problem with a review of police shootings (assuming you find the grand jury investigation to be inadequate), as long as the goal is not a punitive one.
If there is some flaw in training or operational strategies, fine, acknowledge it and get it changed, but let's keep in mind that police officers are human and self preservation is a powerful emotion.
We can debate all we want, but I'm quite sure none of them will be thinking about comments made in this blog when they are being shot at.

does anyone really think they'll actually tell the TRUTH as to what really happened in this case? Please don't be so simpleminded! Let us review the "polical science" in this case and look at the characters that are involved and decide whether we are at all willing to believe what the PoPo and City Hall tell us.

First of, when McCollister killed Kendra James 5 years ago, it was widely alleged that his father--the Court Administrator in nearby McMinnville and an accomplished game player with the "system"--put pressure on
Multnomah's DA to cherry-pick the members of the jury that were to hear the initial case against Scottie as to whether it was a justified killing or not. Naturally, with the DA in position to come through with such a favor--obviously owed to the Scott's father--the jury performed as the McCollister family wanted. Next, it is alleged when the case came before the Federal Courts, this same man is rumored to have peddled influence to get a favorable jury that'd be disposed to let his son off the hook for a significant damage suit that the entire McCollister family, no doubt, would have had to share in settling. Finally, when Scottie's case against the City for wrongful suspension came before mandated arbitrator--a legal expert from Florida, as I recall, that is likewise reputed to have had prior connections to Scot's father--the proverbial FIX was likely had and Scottie got off "scot free" and got all his back pay plus interest.

Helps to have a DADDY FIXER, but it sucks for JUSTICE and ACCOUNTABILITY, and it goes a great way in explaining why Scot is reputed to have such a "sociopathic personality" that suffers wild mood swings, for with a father's intervention in such a case, it bound to have had a long history of such interventions that would leave such person's personality severely damaged and a tortured relationship between the two...and though Scot's actions would be a disappointment to the McCollister family as a whole...in the end, Daddy came though with a FIX as no doubt he's had to do before. ((It's such flawed child-rearing techniques that allowed sociopaths and pyschopaths to stalk among we saner people totally unaware what lurks behind the carefully constructed masks such people wear))!

With McCollister the POSTER BOY for PoPo's BAD COPS and the fact so many, especially the leadership at PPA have rallied the "troops" to stand behind the Blue Wall in vigerous defense of him from day one, they are NOT about to let all the "I told you so" prophecy that was hurled in their damned faces for 5 years be now realized as a FACT and openly admitted! Get REAL! Know the character of the people you're dealing with!

As for Tom, Rosie and the management of the PoPo and City Hall, it's no-brainer that they'll want to sweep this under the biggest rug in City Hall, rather than have a vigerous attack lodged against them after their gross stumblings 'n' mishandlings arising from the James Chasse stomping to death by PoPo thugs. With their time short in office and in position, they'll want this matter to simply "go away" and the sooner the better, as they'll not want their tenues in office remembered as tainted by Scott McCollister ((from political point-of-view, they'll simply want to let Vera Katz and Mark Kroeker wear the McCollister Stench rather than dab themselves with it...no! no!))

As for the Multnomah County DA, since he's up for re-election and likely was a "favor giver" to Scot's daddy's pressure originally ((how is anyone ever going to prove such as these kinds of "abusers of the system" are smart enough to cover themselves so such will never be proven nor found out)) and once on the hook to
"Save Scottie", then he'll still be on the hook now, albeit perhaps "reluctantly"...but to keep a lid on the past, one is likely to clamp the lid once again. Make sense?

Ditto for the gal Medical Examiner for the State that rules in cop-friendly fashion. No need to elaborate as you can connect the dots on that picture.

OK, now that you've put the "cast of characters" into TRUE PERSPECTIVE, do you really think they'll tell the WHOLE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH as to what really happened?

I'd suspect they'll come back with some nonsense saying that the poor chap killed himself and while Scottie and the other cop fired rashly--under stress of the moment--luckly their shots didn't hit him or kill him, as poor chap died at his own hands. So sorry about that! Or, words to that effect...their usual spinmeistered droolings!

So, folks, there you go...Lesson 1 in POLICE MANAGEMENT 101 as taught and practiced here in Portland, Oregon. Rather simple and cut and dried...when you look at the characters and their "character"!

Have a nice day and don't stop working to force these damned characters to a reckoning that they surely deserve and will surely meet...if not in this life, then most assuredly in the next!

James J--I do indeed find grand-jury "investigations" of police shootings to be inadequate--highly inadequate. One: the evidence is brought by the DA, who is unlikely to be impartial. Two: a grand jury is picked at random from the general public, as is any jury. Extending my mine-disaster analogy a bit: you want a mine-disaster to be investigated by people with relevant expertise, such as engineers and medical examiners, not by 12 people picked at random. An independent police review board ought to include people with pertinent expertise, too: perhaps psychologists, forensics specialists, medical specialists, and so on. The rap on independent police review always seems to be that review boards are really just tools of people who hate the police. So--set up a review board carefully to avoid that problem.

I must say "wow!" as that is quite an astute
observation there in Lesson 1 of POLICE
MANAGEMENT 101 above, and I have little in
the way of doubt that it is all true too! A
lot of discussion about the PPB and their
woeful problems go on at my office a lot,
and I am taking liberty to download this to
print it out for my colleagues to read come
Monday morning. Thanks a lot!

I am not sure whether to laugh or cry over that ridiculous psychological evaluation from the prior post. I have known Scott my entire life, and he is a good person. His father is a good and honorable man. To suggest that his father ran around fixing problems his whole life is ridiculous and ignorant. Scott didn't need "Daddy's help" because he wasn't in trouble growing up. I know that you all assume he is this monster who gets off on shooting people. I can't tell you how far from the truth that is.

hmmm! there "incredulous", I think a lot of people are
incredulous that you'd dare post such a lame comment,
as it totally flies in the face of the well known FACTS of
this sad case.

While Scot and his family are surely no dummies, they
are well aware that it's a "command performance" on
their part's to get out to seek to "appear" to be "normal"
and that all is OK and that they are not these monsters
that Scot's ill-fated blunderings have set them up to now
be recast them to being.

Well, too bad as his split-second decision to kill a woman
with child under false pretext and then seek to recast and
rescript the incident, along with a bit of help from his two
pals ((let's not forget that the other two officers involved
were his personal friends as well as his professional co-
workers and in fact, they shared weekly dinner outings
with their respective wives, who are mutual pals, and thus,
all were very prone to biased recollections, if not outright
lying to cover-up what really happened...they all labor yet
today under a heavy cloud of doubt as to their integrity as
result their seeming cooperation in helping their pal Scot
get off "scot free" rather that step up to the plate be truthful
and honest men!)) seems to betray the racism that lurked in
his mind, though surely well hiddened from a public exposure.

And as such, was widely rumored to be a direct produce of his
upbringing in a house where the parents were busy achievers
that accorded lapses in parenting, and themselves harbored a
bit of superiority attitudes and racist notions, but were indeed
smart enough to recognize that it was it imperative to put on
a public face that said otherwise.

So, while Scot and family may suffer the severe pangs of public
discomfort at such impingement of their respective "character",
they do continue to breath in 'n' out and draw air, which Kendra
James no longer does due to Scot and all that he brought to the
incident in the way of his own "personal baggage" and his own
personal "hang-ups" as a person. For they are just as relevant
to what happened as all the PPB mumbo-jumbo thrown out to
seek to mask the facts and obscure the real truth!

It is a sham for you to write on their behalf and vainly seek to
let them off the hook for their personal accountability for a great
debt still owed to the public--and certainly to the memory of Kendra
James and her family--that remains UNPAID, for it makes you--as
a rank apologist--partake in the same sham that they've sought to
foist on the public in respect to true "accountability" that Scot has
thus far totally escaped, no doubt in a large measure due to his
Dad's behind the scenes FIXINGS and political string pulling, along
with calling in political debts owed him for prior favors he'd done
in respect to their dealing gone awry.

To seek to proclaim otherwise, is to open up the very can of
worms that is sought to be clamped shut tight, for the stench does
escape every time the can is picked up and played with.

Anyone else care to pick up that can and try to defend Scot?

Damn McCollister anyway. Since he is white he should have allowed Kendra James to run himself or his partner down.

Now he's gone and violated another innocent felon's rights by shooting him too.

He was only asserting his rights to shoot at "the man". That's was no reason to shoot HIM.