Last month, a Grants Pass officer who was searching in the dark for a criminal suspect shot and killed a resident who stepped out of his house with a gun.
On Thursday, a Josephine County grand jury concluded the shooting of Mark Caldwell on Monday, Sept. 19 was justified.
On that day, police were pursuing a suspect after a call about suspicious activity in a park.
According to a press release, once police arrived at the park, a man fled the scene on foot. As police were looking for him near Southwest Westholm Avenue, they encountered a different man who lived in the area, who they say was armed. That man was Caldwell.
An officer shot Caldwell, who was taken to a hospital with critical injuries. He died three days after the shooting.
The officer who shot Caldwell was placed on administrative leave, per state protocols. The officer was later identified as Micaila Miguel, who has been employed by the Grants Pass Police Department since 2018.
Oregon State Police investigated the police shooting. OSP has not reported any additional information about the suspect sought on Sept. 19. A description of the suspect has not been released by police, nor have more details on the reported suspicious activity in the park.
According to the Grants Pass Daily Courier, Caldwell’s widow is planning a lawsuit.
Her attorney, Robert Miller of Eugene, says he believes the use of deadly force was not reasonable and he’s pursuing civil litigation.
The Daily Courier reports there have been ten deadly shootings by law enforcement officers in Josephine County since 2014. The killing of Caldwell was the ninth, followed by another fatal police shooting in the county the very next day.