Live by the gun, die by the gun

Marva Davis lost two young sons last month. One of the brothers, Timothy Douglass, died of kidney failure. Hours later his brother, Aaron Campbell, 25, was shot by police. The circumstances surrounding both of these deaths are heavily documented—but Campbell’s death raises more questions than answers.

To comment on this precarious subject, I read the 454-page grand jury transcript documenting the shooting. I’ve listened to the hours of 911 and police dispatch recordings. I’ve absorbed all of these, and yet I have only a tenuous grasp of what happened that night outside of the Sandy Terrace Apartments. Reports are murky, recreating the confusion of both the police and Campbell on Jan. 29.

The day previous to the shooting, Campbell had attempted suicide multiple times, but failed apparently as a result of a faulty gun. His girlfriend testified that he wanted the police to kill him because if he committed suicide he would go to hell. Despite that, he pointed a gun at his head in front of her and told her he tried to kill himself in a car earlier. He went into the parking lot and fired a test shot before he went to sleep.

People deal with grief in different ways. Campbell’s grief manifested itself violently and abusively to the people around him. But it seems his actions were merely the result of a young man who couldn’t process his brother’s sudden death.

Of course, Campbell should not have had a gun in the first place. Campbell’s criminal history includes resisting arrest, domestic violence, four counts of assault and attempted murder with a handgun. Campbell’s girlfriend testified that he had beat her countless times in the past.

Protestors who called the shooting an “execution,” including Rev. Jesse Jackson, failed to mention Campbell’s violent criminal history and the fact that while he didn’t have the gun on him when he was gunned down, it was in the apartment he was holed up in. Police had every right to take precautions to protect themselves and the bystanders in the apartment complex.

The details get a little unclear throughout the rest of the transcript. James Quackenbush, the police officer who had direct contact with Campbell, used Campbell’s girlfriend’s phone to text him. He also complained of bad reception when they did talk. Is this standard police procedure? What happened to the megaphone? In a potential hostage situation—three children were present in the apartment in this case—communication is paramount. Texting is one of the worst mediums for communication. Even Campbell admitted that texting was ridiculous. One of his texts to Quackenbush reportedly reads, “Wow, you guys text, too. You get kudos.”

Despite owning a gun, threatening to kill himself in front of his girlfriend and firing his gun the night before, Campbell did everything right once police arrived. Keep in mind that he hadn’t committed a crime that day and the police were responding to a welfare check for Campbell’s girlfriend. Campbell had no idea why the police were there until he got a text from Quackenbush.

Campbell handled the situation perfectly. When Quackenbush mentioned that police were concerned about the three children in the apartment, they were immediately sent outside. Campbell and Quackenbush joked with each other and seemed to have an amicable conversation, even calling Quackenbush “Jimmy.”

The problem lies in Quackenbush’s relaying of his conversation to the other officers. The men were not properly briefed on the situation and ongoing negotiations. When Campbell voluntarily stepped out of his apartment backwards with his hands behind his head, the officers didn’t know he was unarmed and compliant. Officer Ryan Lewton ordered Campbell to stop and put his hands up in the air. Lewton stated, “He just stood there with his hands behind his head. So I shot him with the beanbag gun.”

A man has his back to a wall of armed policemen with his hands behind his head. How much danger could they really be in?

Reports say that Campbell shouted something along the lines of “Just shoot me already. I know you’re going to.”

Officer Ronald Frashour, the AR15-trained marksmen who killed Campbell, said he didn’t know what Campbell was saying, but it was “aggressive and hostile and defiant and loud.”

Campbell was shot by the beanbag gun multiple times in the lower back when he stumbled forward and reached to his lower waistband. Frashour says that he had to have been reaching for a gun. One could wonder if he had been gripping the area the beanbags struck. At that point, Frashour says he made the decision to use lethal force.

From his testimony, it sounds like Frashour made the decision much earlier. Police were briefed and told  that Campbell was attempting “suicide by police.” Everything from Campbell’s criminal history to the violence of the previous day created a situation that was destined to end in violence. Officer Frashour was forced to make the difficult decision to take Campbell’s life to protect others based on the little information he gleaned from other officers.

Many have taken part in the blame game since the incident. But both Campbell and the Portland Police Bureau are to blame for creating a situation that ended in death. We can only hope that the bureau imposes severe reforms to make sure that something like this doesn’t happen again.