Federal lawsuit demands Portland Officer Dane Reister be terminated for a 2011 shooting

http://www.oregonlive.com ^ | 01/11/2013 | By Maxine Bernstein

[redreno]

Portland Police Officer Dane Reister should lose his job for suddenly firing a beanbag shotgun that he mistakenly loaded with lethal rounds at a man obviously suffering from a mental illness, a federal lawsuit filed Thursday says.

The attorney for William Kyle Monroe, wounded by Reister on June 30, 2011, accuses the officer, Police Chief Mike Reese and the city of Portland of violating Monroe's civil rights through false arrest, assault and negligence.

The suit seeks more than $11 million in damages.

[Domangart]

This sounds like a normal day at the office. If you have a crazy relative and call your cops, they will come and shoot him.

[Theoria]

The officer mixed in lethal and non lethal ammo in his kit bag, and fails to ensure his weapon is properly loaded.

Criminal negligence.

[count-your-change]

The guy has been terminated, you’ll have to come to his funeral to fire him.

[JimRed]

Shouldn’t a “beanbag” shotgun be incapable of firing lethal rounds? Or is there even such a thing? What with journalist ignorance of firearms...

[USNBandit]

Our locals were so worried about this that they carried two shotguns. One regular shotgun and a brightly colored one in the trunk loaded with bean bags.

[Celtic Conservative]

Yes, that's the KISS principle in action(keep it simple, stupid). Shotguns used for this should have bright orange stocks and fore-ends and be clearly marked "less than lethal". Ammo for said shotgun should be kept completely separate from standard service ammo. The shotshells for the less than lethals are usually molded in colors not usually used by service shotshells and also tend to be clearly marked as to purpose (e.g. beanbag, wooden balls, rubber pellets, pepperballs or powder, etc.) This was an example of poor training and departmental practice.

CC