Video of a fatal Portland police shooting shows an officer shooting a man in the middle of a trial

The Portland police officer who shot a man with a pellet air rifle on Oct. 4 did so while another officer tried to de-escalate the confrontation with the man, newly released body camera footage shows.

Officer Andrew Young shot and killed Nicholas G. Thorn, Portland police said.

The office released partial footage of the events leading up to the shooting, stitched together into a single video with body-worn camera footage from multiple officers and a narrative of the events. It’s the first time Portland police have released body camera footage of a fatal shooting since officers began wearing cameras earlier this year.

The office said that around 12:30 p.m. police responded to a call involving a man and a woman at a residence in the Brentwood-Darlington neighborhood, 5235 SE Lambert St., where there may have been children The Portland Police Bureau said in a summary of events contained in body camera footage released Thursday.

According to the recordings, an officer knocked on the apartment door four times at 12:48 a.m.

“Portland Police. Hey! He has a gun,” the officer shouted. “Portland Police, put your weapon down.”

A voice came from behind the door. “(Expletive) you,” the man shouted, according to the footage.

An officer then turned to another officer nearby. “I couldn’t tell if it was a real gun or not, but we have to back down,” the officer said.

The police bureau said officers saw a man with a rifle approach the door and then retreat to their cars in the parking lot.

That man, 28-year-old Thorn, then went to the second floor porch and yelled at the officers below while waving a .22-caliber air rifle, pointing it at the officers and threatening to shoot and kill the officers , the police said in their summary of the facts. Additional officers were at the scene, the office said, including a member of the office’s Enhanced Crisis Intervention Team.

Over the next 30 minutes or so, the FBI learned that the women and children mentioned in the original 911 call were safe and also learned that the weapon Thorn possessed may have been a .22-caliber pellet gun, the FBI said Police with. The officers asked Thorn to put the gun down, but he refused, police said.

At 1:21 a.m., the negotiator repeatedly asked Thorn over a police car’s public address system to come downstairs, telling him she would like to hear him better.

As that officer attempted to speak to Thorn, Young stood next to another police car and positioned himself to point his rifle at Thorn, body-worn camera footage shows.

“I’m going to blow a hole in your (expletive) head,” Thorn can be heard screaming. “I don’t want to, but I will.”

“Has anyone issued a warning of violence?” an officer asked.

“I don’t know,” another officer replied.

The officer negotiating with Thorn tried to communicate with him again and asked him to come down the stairs, body camera footage shows.

“Nick, you say a lot of things. And I really want to hear what you say, and I don’t want your neighbors to hear all your business,” the official said. “I just want to give you privacy.”

Thorn then appeared to shout, “You know what?” and Young fired a single shot from his rifle just after 1:22 a.m., which was immediately followed by a profanity from one of the officers.

Thorn is difficult to see in the body camera footage because bright police lights were trained on him. Therefore, it is unclear what exactly he was doing in the moments before Young shot him.

Body camera footage provided by the police department ends almost immediately after the shooting. The FBI had previously said that officers found the air rifle and a knife near the man.

The death occurred “after de-escalation tactics, including the use of force warnings,” the office said in its statement releasing the video footage. Young has worked for the police department for seven years, the office said. The office declined to name other officials involved.

“More details will be released as the investigation continues,” the office said. “This includes what the officer(s) knew at the time of the incident.”

Thorn is the third person killed by police in Portland this year. Matthew Holland was killed on January 14th and Richard Shawn Perez was killed on May 6th. Police have injured three other people in shootings so far this year: Patrick Myers, Robert Seeger and Jesse James West.

— Fedor Zarkhin is a breaking news and business reporter. Do you have a story? He can be reached by phone or text at 971-373-2905 or email at fzarkhin@oregonian.

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