UPDATE (Monday, Dec. 9 at 10 p.m. PT) —
Portland police fatally shot a man with a history of mental illness Sunday afternoon on a Southeast Portland street corner, just east of Mall 205.
Several officers were dispatched at 1:40 p.m. to respond to a report of a man holding a knife near the intersection of Southeast 103rd Drive and Southeast Stark Street. According to the police scanner, two people had called in to report a white male standing in the middle of the roadway with a furry white scarf wrapped around his shoulders, pointing a knife at traffic that flowed by.
Officers approached the man, identified Monday as 51-year-old Koben Henriksen. Soon after, officers fired multiple shots, according to the latest release from the bureau. Henriksen died at the scene.
Court records show Henriksen had a history of mental illness. In January 2014, a judge found him unable to aid in his defense in an alleged theft case. He was ordered to receive treatment at the Oregon State Hospital, and two psychological evaluations were requested later that year. The theft charge was ultimately dismissed.
During the fatal encounter Sunday, scanner traffic showed a period of just under seven minutes between when officers were first dispatched to the call and when an officer radioed in “suspect down.”
On Monday afternoon, the bureau named Justin Raphael, who has been on the force for seven years, as the officer who used lethal force on Henriksen.
The bureau also said Daniel Leonard, who's been on the force for 11 years, responded with “foam-tipped projectiles,” which police consider a “less-lethal tool.”
The bureau said it has placed the officers involved on paid administrative leave, per bureau policy.
Records show both officers had received some training to prepare them for a situation like the one that unfolded in the intersection Sunday. Leonard, who used the weapon with foam tipped-projectiles, had taken a 10-hour training on the tool in 2017. Raphael, who fired the fatal shots, had taken a 40-hour class on crisis intervention in 2015.
Raphael's name also shows up in a 2017 lawsuit filed by the local ACLU that alleged the police bureau restricted the movement of marchers during a protest, detaining them for over an hour and blocking access to food or bathrooms.
Portland Police Chief Danielle Outlaw said more details will be forthcoming.
“This is still early in the investigation, and we will work within the process to release as much information as we can without compromising any of the investigation,” Outlaw said.
Sunday marked the year’s fifth fatal shooting by Portland police officers, making 2019 the deadliest year for police shootings since 2010.
Conrad Wilson contributed to this story.