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Apr-24-2015 12:14printcomments

Police Involved Shooting Puts Mission Lakes WalMart on Lockdown (UPDATE)

A man is barricaded in a motor home, shooting at police.

walmart lockdown
Turner Road is closed temporarily while the police action is underway. Photo by Austin King

(SALEM, Ore.) - Salem Police have the roads blocked leading to Turner Road where WalMart is under a complete lockdown at this time. Employees are inside, and no one is leaving.

Reports indicate that there is an "active tactical situation", a shooting incident, under way near the entrance of Cascades Gateway Park, in WalMart's south parking lot. A SWAT team has been activated and may have arrived by this time.

Salem Police Information Officer Lt. Dave Okata said, "This remains a tactical and dynamic situation."

This all apparently began as a "suspicious vehicle" investigation about 11 a.m. today, and upon talking to the bus-motorhome's driver, police discovered he had a warrant out of Linn County, and probation violation out of Wyoming, according to reports.

The suspect shot a police dog with a small caliber handgun. They have reportedly returned fire with the unidentified man while serving an arrest warrant, said Salem Police Lt. Dave Okada during a press conference. No one else was injured and the police dog is expected to survive.

The suspected shooter barricaded himself inside the bus/motorhome after the shooting, Okada said.

(UPDATE 1:05 p.m.) Now the suspect has reportedly threatened "to blow up the bus if they don't back off". According to scanner traffic, officials don't believe the suspect has the propane and natural gas necessary for an explosion.

According to the Statesman Journal, police described a suspect as a white male, bald, with a beard, and bright blue eyes. The suspect is apparently still barricaded inside a motor home and shots have been fired from the motor home.

Turner Road remains closed and WalMart's south parking lot was evacuated, and police are attempting to evacuate any other people who may be in the line of fire.

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(UPDATE 1:54 p.m.) The Salem Police canine that was injured in today’s incident is named Baco. Baco was treated at an animal hospital and has been released to go home. His handler is Officer Trevor Morrison who was involved in a deadly officer involved shooting in 2014, when Jacklynn Ford was shot and killed.

(UPDATE 2:35 p.m.) Police are giving the suspect "surrender instructions".

(UPDATE 3:40 p.m.) The situation on Turner Rd is still an active tactical situation. The suspect has fired more shots from inside of the vehicle, but there have been no further injuries.

(UPDATE 3:50 p.m.) More than a dozen gas canisters were fired into the bus. WalMart customers that have been holed up in the store are being shuttled to their friends/families. They will have to come back for their vehicles when the police scene has cleared.

(UPDATE 5:50 p.m.) Police used an armored vehicle to ram the bus/motorhome.

(UPDATE 6:15 p.m.) Police shot multiple times into a hole in the bus just after 6 p.m. The suspect, who was visibly wounded, slid out of the bus but was still alive. Officers surrounded him, tied his arms and legs with zip ties and took him into an armored vehicle. He was transported to Salem Hospital.




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Anonymous April 28, 2015 11:55 am (Pacific time)

Cops shoot fleeing woman in the back for a warrant. This guy gets 7 hours to get shot. Same dumb cop and dog that shot a friend...too bad the dog didnt die.


Milwaukie April 25, 2015 2:48 pm (Pacific time)

Shall we organize a protest for this guy's civil rights being abused? Nah, nobody cares for some nomad in a dilapidated motorhome. What if they had only brought the ambulance a little closer to the wounded man. What if they tried to treat his wounds, or at least assess them, before strapping him up with zip ties and stepping on him on the bumper of their SWAT vehicle. I'm sure there is a reason, but it still won't answer a lot of questions about how this was handled.


Anonymous April 25, 2015 12:07 pm (Pacific time)

hey jeb, if you think you can do better, why don't you become a police officer?


Scott April 25, 2015 2:13 am (Pacific time)

You guys crack me up. Police go there to locate two wanted subjects and one of the wanted subjects shoots at officers and a police dog. They give the guy hours to surrender but eventually took him out. The police are danged if they do and danged if they don't. Criticize them when they screw up, but support them when they are doing good, like in this case.


Anonymous April 24, 2015 8:06 pm (Pacific time)

No fairness when can't express opinion when it was totally unacceptable MIS use


jimmy April 24, 2015 8:01 pm (Pacific time)

All that instigated while putting alot of people( humans)in harms way for something that could of been done and over with from the start with more professionalism it didn't have to drag on for medias sake- come on really,as the comment bout barney fife that's the truth ofit today&once again they show lack of communication& over kill violence unnecessary. all for a suspect warrant/violation, what the ? Of course bear arms,To protect suppose to serve who?


Jonathan April 24, 2015 6:32 pm (Pacific time)

at the end of the day I would love to see how much tax money it cost Salem to serve that warrant. It involved SalemPD, KeizerPD, Oregon State Police, BendPD and PortlandPD.


Duh April 24, 2015 6:27 pm (Pacific time)

Hey, at least the cops have an actual reason to execute this one, thats progress right?


Maria Harmon April 24, 2015 5:54 pm (Pacific time)

Praying for our men/women in blue and a safe resolution. I've been listening to this on scanner for the last 5 hrs from Hickory, NC.


Anonymous April 24, 2015 5:12 pm (Pacific time)

Shoot his ass


Jeb April 24, 2015 4:24 pm (Pacific time)

They keep talking about the "armor" they are bringing in from Bend to end this thing. If you look at the NYT's 1033 location list it's not hard to figure out how they are going to end this. Is this where we are in the world? The guy was wanted on a warrant and a parole violation. All that wasted tax money blown on "ending" a situation that Barney Fife instigated in the first place. How about training all SPD officers in non violent communication and then stripping the 1033 weapons from the state agencies.


paul April 24, 2015 3:32 pm (Pacific time)

Get a dozer and tip it over


josh April 24, 2015 3:15 pm (Pacific time)

Hopefully nobody else gets hurt. I applaud the police on containing the situation.

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