An internal affairs investigator found that a Portland police officer violated the city s deadly force policy when heshot and killed an unarmed man in 2022, an advisory board to the police chief issued a split decision, and Police Bureau leaders ultimately sided with the officer.
Records initially obtained by OPB reveal that Mayor Ted Wheeler then approved Police Chief Bob Day’s final decision, clearing the six-year veteran of the Police Bureau.
On November 19, 2022, Officer Christopher Sathoff shot and killed 30-year-old Immanuel Clark as he fled from officers who approached his car, in violation of the rules on the use of deadly force, according to investigator Stacey Rovinelli. Police thought his fast-moving car had been involved in an armed robbery outside a fast-food restaurant on Powell Boulevard and Southeast 50th Avenue.
Last year, a grand jury found Sathoff not guilty of any criminal charges related to the shooting death. In March, Clark s familyfiled a wrongful death suitagainst the city and the Police Bureau claiming that police had no reasonable suspicion to stop Clark when they surrounded his car nearly 2 miles from the alleged armed robbery. Officers had a fairly vague description of the suspected getaway automobile at the time.
The case is a perfect illustration of the ineffectiveness of Portland s current system for holding police officers accountable, said Jesse Merrithew, an attorney representing Clark s family in the civil suit, in a statement.
According to Chief Day and Mayor Wheeler, shooting unarmed individuals in the rear as they flee is all within PPB policy, Merrithew continued.
Internal affairs findings
In her analysis, Rovinelli wrote officers had no probable cause to link Clark to the armed robbery when a police sergeant spotted his gray sedan speeding in Southeast Portland and a police airplane followed the car to the church parking lot. According to her, a witness identified the armed robber as white, and the first descriptions of the robbery suspects and their car were ambiguous. Black was Clark’s race.
There were not enough facts available/gathered at the time, Rovinelli wrote.
When officers surrounded Clark s car, they found three people with him. A woman approached the police, a third man remained in the car, and Clark and another man fled.
Sathoff fired three shots in one second or less from his bureau-issued AR-15 rifle as Clark ran. Rovinelli said this action went against his training to not shoot a volley of bullets but rather to assess between each trigger pull.
Therefore, each application of deadly force was out of policy, Rovinelli wrote.
In an interview with Rovinelli, Sathoff said he believed his force was reasonable due to a threat of death or serious physical injury to him and other officers on scene. He saw Clark reach into his pocket and believed he was trying to take out a gun.
I was not going to wait for him to engage in a gun battle with us, he said.
But Rovinelli wrote that there was no evidence to support Clark was going to stop running away from officers, or engage officers in a firefight. She said none of the officers could articulate whether they saw anything in his hands, pocket or waistband.
Other than reciting parts of the directive, Officer Sathoff gave vague reasonings for firing the three rifle rounds except to say he continued to shoot until Clark s behavior changed, Rovinelli wrote in her conclusion.
Ross Caldwell, director of the city s Independent Police Review that evaluates complaints against police but does not issue discipline, agreed with her assessment, according to a Feb. 9 letter.
Members of the bureau s Police Review Board that advises the chief split on the question, with four people finding the use of deadly force in policy and three disagreeing. Members include a mix of police employees and city residents.
When evaluating if an officer s use of force is excessive, police use the Graham standard, a framework stemming from a U.S. Supreme Court case that established that a claim of excessive force must be judged from the perspective of reasonable officers on the scene rather than with hindsight. The court acknowledged officers make quick decisions in tense situations.
That was the basis of Acting East Precinct Commander Jacob Clark s argument when he disagreed with Rovinelli. Jacob Clark was Sathoff s supervisor at the time and issued his own finding, as is standard.
While police now know Clark was not involved in the robbery, all the officers and the acting lieutenant did not at the time, he wrote. Both Sathoff and Officer Israel Holsti, who stood next to Sathoff at the scene, believed Clark was armed and trying to get a handgun from his waist area or right jacket pocket.
If Sathoff hadn t fired the shots, Holsti told Rovinelli he would have done so. But Rovinelli failed to take this reasonable perspective into account, Jacob Clark wrote. He said Holsti expressed the same fears and found it very difficult to believe their shared observations, fears and concerns were unreasonable in that moment in time.
Jacob Clark said Sathoff and other officers didn t need to see a gun or any other object in Immanueal Clark s hand to open fire, according to Police Bureau policy.
But knowing all the facts may have resulted in a different outcome.
With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, it is clear an unarmed young man was shot and killed by a Portland police officer after being suspected of committing a crime he did not commit, wrote Jacob Clark, in response to Rovinelli s findings.
Objectively reasonable
Portland police directives state officers may use deadly force to protect themselves or others from what they reasonably believe to be an immediate threat of death or serious physical injury. They may also use it to prevent escape when they have probable cause to believe a person has committed a violent felony and poses a threat to officers or others.
Then-Deputy Chief Michael Frome, the second-in-command at the Police Bureau, issued a final recommendation in June. He found Sathoff s use of force to be in policy.
Under the totality of the circumstances, the use of lethal force by the involved member was objectively reasonable and proportionate to the perceived threat, Frome wrote.
The internal review into the shooting was completed in August, records show.
Day, the police chief, reviewed the findings from the Police Review Board and discussed the case with members of the chief s office and internal affairs. He agreed with the majority of the board that Sathoff did not violate any policies in the shooting, according to a July memorandum. Wheeler signed the document with him.
In a statement on the case, Day wrote, any loss of life in our city is a tragedy but he defended the Police Bureau s policies, calling them a national model for other law enforcement agencies to follow.
In 2020, Portland votersoverwhelmingly choseto overhaul the city s oversight system for officers, in favor of a new system that will establish a Community Police Oversight Board. The new board will be able to recommend and issue discipline.
A federal judgeordered the city to delay its processto appoint a new board until January.
Zaeem Shaikh covers the Portland Police Bureau and criminal justice issues for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach him at 503-221- 4323,[email protected] on X@zaeemshake.
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