Just six days into 2022, law enforcement said Roman Ivan Kokhanevych, 24, robbed a Gresham bank and led them on a pursuit through Troutdale and Gresham. Throughout the chase, according to law enforcement, Kokhanevych fired several times at police and sheriff’s deputies.
Gresham police Officer Mark Smith and Multnomah County Sheriff’s Deputy Chad Phifer shot and killed Kokyanevych, the first of at least 41 people Oregon law enforcement would shoot at in 2022. Twenty-three were killed.
Phifer was one of seven officers who shot and killed John Elifritz at a Southeast Portland homeless shelter in 2018 when Phifer was a Portland police officer.
Eleven months later, Salem Police Cpl. Joshua Buker shot at but did not hit Vincent Nesbitt and Daren Shelton-Olson, both 19, during a foot pursuit after the two allegedly attempted to carjack a woman. Nesbitt and Shelton-Olson were both arrested and charged.
The incident marked the 38th time law enforcement in Oregon shot at someone last year, breaking a previous record set in 2018 when police shot at 37 people, according to police watchdog Portland Copwatch.
In Portland, police officers shot at nine people in 2022, killing four and injuring three. A fifth person was killed in Portland by a Clackamas County Sheriff’s deputy after a car chase that ended in the city limits.
Statewide, the number of police shootings increased by five since 2021, while Portland police killed the same number of people.
The record-setting police violence matches a nationwide trend, according to data collected by the Washington Post. Last year, police killed 1,055 people, the highest since the Post started tracking fatal police shootings in 2015. As of Dec. 20, 2022, it estimates the nation’s law enforcement will set another record with 1,069 deadly police shootings.
Original article: https://www.opb.org/article/2023/01/02/portland-police-shootings-officer-law-enforcement-gun-violence-oregon/