Former Portland Police Chief Larry O’Dea was indicted Tuesday by a grand jury for shooting his friend during a hunting trip in Harney County earlier this year.
The grand jury charged the former Portland police chief with a misdemeanor: negligently wounding another person.
“The said defendant, on or about April 21, 2016, in Harney County, Oregon, did unlawfully and by failing to use ordinary care under the circumstances wound Robert Dempsey with a bullet from a firearm," the indictment states.
O'Dea shot his friend Robert Dempsey while the two were hunting ground squirrels in April. According to county dispatch records, Dempsey was shot in the lower back and was airlifted from the scene to receive medical assistance.
Initially, O'Dea told county deputies Dempsey shot himself, but O'Dea later acknowledged he was the one who shot him. At the time, O'Dea told Portland Mayor Charlie Hales that he had shot Dempsey. Like O'Dea, Hales didn't disclose that information.
According to the Harney County Sheriff's deputy who responded to the incident, O'Dea smelled of alcohol at the time of the shooting.
O'Dea announced his retirement in June, effectively resigning his post at the city's top police officer.