Pubdate: 15 Jan 1999
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 1999 Houston Chronicle
Website: http://www.chron.com/
Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html
Contact:  Ed Asher
Section: A, Page 29, Metfront
Edition: 3 STAR

EX-HPD OFFICER TELLS OF NIGHT OREGON SHOT

An officer involved in the fatal shooting of Pedro Oregon Navarro gave a
sworn statement to attorneys for Oregon's family, an officer's first public
account of the killing.

Former HPD Officer David Russell Perkins said he was not in Oregon's
bedroom when the shooting began early in the morning of July 12.

He said he heard a shot, saw an officer go down, then heard a rapid
succession of shots and assumed that Oregon was in a firefight with another
officer.

However, Perkins said, he never saw a gun in Oregon's hand.

Perkins said he fired four shots, missing each time, then ducked into a
bathroom. When he emerged moments later, he said, he saw Oregon on the
floor with a gun near his right shoulder.

Another officer told him he had kicked the weapon away from Oregon's hands,
Perkins said.

According to HPD, officers claimed Oregon was advancing on them holding a
gun when they fired at him. Police fired more than 30 shots, 12 of which
hit Oregon.

HPD has said a gun recovered from the apartment had not been fired. It has
not said who owned the gun.

Perkins' statement, which he gave Dec. 15, is attached to documents filed
in federal court late Wednesday by Oregon family attorney Richard Mithoff .

Perkins' attorney, Duncan Neblett, said he allowed him to make a statement
to Mithoff to streamline the discovery process in the Oregon family's civil
rights lawsuit against the officers and the city of Houston.

"Officer Perkins has nothing to hide in this case, so that is why we gave a
statement," Neblett said. "He's not guilty of any civil crimes or any
criminal crimes.

"All he was doing was following orders and doing what any police officer in
his circumstances would have done."

Asked the significance of Perkins' statement, Mithoff declined to comment.
He said his own investigation is ongoing.

Here is Perkins' version:

Although it was never discussed, he assumed that he and the other officers
went to Oregon's apartment to conduct a consensual search for drugs. They
did not have a warrant.

With the officers was Ryan F. Baxter, 28, who told them he had gotten drugs
at 6711 Atwell, Apartment 16.

Once they arrived at the complex, the officers gathered at a stairwell
below Oregon's second-floor apartment while Baxter went up and knocked on
the door.

Perkins heard a conversation and Officer Pete A. Herrada then started up
the stairs with the other officers in tow. When Perkins got to the top,
Baxter was on the ground and the apartment door was open. Two other
officers were already inside, "detaining" two men.

Perkins said he does not know how the other officers obtained entry.

He drew his gun and proceeded down a hallway toward the back of the
apartment, where he found a bathroom, an open-door bedroom and a
closed-door bedroom. The latter did not have a door knob, just a deadbolt.

Then he saw a woman in the first bedroom. Wanting to "secure the female,"
he holstered his gun and was handcuffing her when he heard a gunshot.

He turned and saw Officer Lamont E. Tillery halfway through the door of
what had been the closed bedroom. Tillery was falling and yelling, "I'm
hit, officer down."

Perkins then heard rapid gunfire and saw Officer David R. Barrera shooting
into the bedroom.

"I just heard a bang, then I turned," Perkins said. "I don't remember how
many shots were fired. I know it was a rapid fire."

Perkins drew his gun and stepped up to the bedroom door.

"I observed Mr. Oregon in the far right corner of the bedroom. Mr. Oregon
was moving aggressively from the right side to the left side of the apartment.

"I determined that he was still a threat and I was in fear of my life
because, number one, Officer Barrera was engaged in what I thought at the
time to be a firefight; he was exchanging gunfire with Mr. Oregon.

"I also determined that Officer Tillery had been shot from an individual
inside the bedroom."

Mithoff asked Perkins, "Did you ever see any weapon in the hands of Pedro
Oregon during the time you saw him move from your right to your left?"

"No, sir," Perkins answered.

But he said he believed at the time he was going to Barrera's aid that
Barrera was under fire from Oregon.

Perkins said he fired four shots, all of which missed Oregon.

"After firing four rounds . . . Mr. Oregon was moving to a position where I
determined that I was in the line of fire and I was about to be hit by
gunfire, just like Officer Tillery was," he said.

Perkins said he had some cover from the doorjamb. But when Oregon moved
from the right side to the left side, he said, "It exposed my whole body to
him.

"At that time, I pivoted out of the doorway and into the bathroom."

He found Tillery on the bathroom floor. "He appeared dead to me or
seriously wounded and I heard another barrage of gunfire," Perkins said.

"I pivoted to back out, and that's when I observed Mr. Oregon lying on the
ground."

Oregon was on his stomach, just inside the doorway.

Then Perkins saw a gun near Oregon's right shoulder. He said Barrera later
told him he had kicked the gun.

"Did Barrera tell you where he had kicked the gun from in order to get it
to that resting position?" Mithoff asked.

"It was somewhere close to Oregon's hands," Perkins said.

Perkins did not mention the other officers, other than to say that Herrada
also fired his gun.

Police officials have said Barrera accidentally fired his gun, striking
Tillery in a bullet-resistant vest and knocking him to the floor.

Also this week, Robert Thomas, the attorney representing four of the
officers - Herrada, Barrera, Tillery and James R. Willis - filed his
response to the Oregon family suit. Thomas said officers are entitled to
use deadly force to protect themselves.

"Pedro Oregon Navarro did not submit to arrest or search in the living
room. Instead, he ran to his gun," Thomas said.

"When confronted by uniformed Houston police officers at his bedroom door,
Pedro Oregon Navarro made a fatal decision and pointed a handgun toward them."

The sixth officer, Darrell H. Strouse, is represented by another attorney.

All six officers have been fired. They were no-billed by a grand jury on
any felony charges, but Willis was indicted on a misdemeanor count of
criminal trespass. 
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