A group of around 60 people gathered for a candelight vigil Friday evening to mourn the loss of Jordan Case, a 20-year-old Reynolds High School graduate who was shot to death in 2006 in Tualatin by a Washington County sheriff’s deputy while tripping on mushrooms.
The event was held at 7 pm at Terry Schrunk Plaza on 3rd and Madison Street.
Click here to read Willamette Week’s full report on the incident.
The family filed a federal lawsuit April 3.
Before the vigil, Jordan’s mother, Jill Griffith, told WWire that her son was not a threat to the police the night he was killed by Sheriff’s Deputy Glenn Howard in October 2006. She pointed out that the gun police claimed he reached for was secured in a police car.
“I couldn’t imagine him reaching for a gun,” she said. “He would never shoot anyone.”
As for the police claiming it seemed like Case had “superhuman strength,” Griffith said her son was an athlete. “He jumped hurdles—he was a cross-county runner.”
Jordan’s sister, Shannon Case, moderated the gathering of family and friends in Portland’s gray dreary rain to both celebrate Case’s life and call attention to his wrongful death.
Those in attendance wore pins of support with a picture of Jordan and ribbons his sister says she picked out because the colors represent victims’ rights and peace.
Speeches included tearful accounts from Case’s father, mother, sister, grandfather, stepmother and family friends.
All called for better-trained law enforcement and remembered Jordan’s kindness and brilliance.
Stepmom Debbie Case says everyday she has to look back and ask why three police officers chose to “attack Jordan rather than use their hands and cuff him.”
Laird Case, Jordan’s father and a deputy fire marshal, said “the public safety system failed.”
The emotion in the plaza permeated with sincere love for Jordan.
His sister, Shannon, told the crowd, “October 24 was a day part of my soul died … I was robbed of the person who I was supposed to walk through life with. I was supposed to die before him.”
Shannon ended with an urge for accountable law enforcement: “Police officers should think before they act.”
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Tags: Punched In The Face
Tragically far too many in the State of Oregon believe this was/is ok. Not enough media exposure to keep the transparency it takes, for honesty. Humans are not honest since it is not an honest world. With governing bodies that are labeled "leaders" behaving as though we’re 100 years backwards now rather than forwards, it’s a tough role model in which to find sanity.
Jordan is a mirror to reflect in all of us just how sick the OFFICERS OF THE PEACE in the State of Oregon truly are.
And those who do not mourn for this loss and furthermore those who have the audacity to think it is somehow ok, even a nano-second of "ok" …
THIS IS NOT OK!
TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN, et al:
JORDAN CASE IS YOUR SON, BROTHER, CHILD.
THE THUGS WHO KILLED HIM "IN FEAR FOR THEIR LIVES" ARE CRIMINALLY INSANE.
Time to wake-up and reach for sanity else one of these days you, you, you are going to find this is not about Jordan, but it’s about YOU, too.
These OFFICERS OF THE PEACE do not care about anything but using those weapons on a human wild animal and that’s why the weapons kill ….
WHY NOT TRANQUILIZE?
Hmmmmm, NOW THAT’S AN INTELLIGENT QUESTION,
Or is it?
What a fuckin moron ! I’d have shot him myself if he’d been standing over me – in my own house.
Good job Washington County Sherrif’s dept.
And if you, Biloxi, some how think you are entitled to enter my (anybodys) house w/out my consent – If I don’t shoot you – I surely hope the cops do !
What gives you the right generalize and stereotype? Since you have no way of knowing all officers, or all drug addicts, you have no right to pass judgment on anyone’s actions. For all you know, you’re neighbors with an officer involved in a lethal shooting. Maybe you’re neighbors with a drug addict. You have no right to make general statements like "these cops do what they do" because you do not have first hand experience with all officers. I’m so damn tired of people passing judgment on officers as a whole. Try walking a mile in their shoes! If you want to generalize, maybe you can say that these cops do their best. These cops protect and serve. These cops risk their lives every shift. These cops love their families. These cops could save you someday. Sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with some officers but that does not give you the right to stereotype them all.
I’m no fan of the police at all and I generally believe that the most dangerous and corrupt group in existence is our police force. That said, I can’t blame them one bit for blowing this fool away. Of course his parents think he was innocent. They’re his parents! Would anyone expect them to actually admit that their shining baby boy was a drug addicted loser? Of course not. Thank goodness, however, that someone without a biased, doting view of this fruitcake was there to handle the situation. His loved ones can wear ribbons, lament his loss and file all the lawsuits they want. I for one am glad this idiot loser is gone.
"mother" you do not know what is was like to be his neighbor and see everything that occured before hand. It’s extremely sad and unfortunate, don’t get me wrong. But none of his family or friends (his friends were also into drugs from what he told me)tried to help him. You have no idea what it was like to wake up in the middle of the night smelling burning chemicals, seeing him lose weight so rapidly and him braggin about his drug use. he became extremely paranoid and unpredictable, pushing many of us away that lived around him. He made the choice to do drugs, cook drugs, harm people. If someone entered our homes unlawfully, we have every right to protect ourselves! HE CHOSE NOT TO STOP! HE KNEW WHAT HE WAS DOING!
Jefe, I’m on your side. yes, it is very sad that this happened and I do feel for his family. Law enforcement DID try to help him, even though he made illegal choices. they tried to protect the victims, surrounding neighbors and themselves. When someone goes for a gun when you know hi or not, they have already tried every option to not harm another, and they still choose to proceed, what other decision is left? People are glorifying his behavior and habbits. they are judging only what they’ve heard from the media, etc. they don’t know what it was like to be his neighbor and have to live with the fear of your own safety, even prior to his unfortunate night.
"mother"…you are right that we do not know every aspect of what it is like to be a cop, etc. somethings you say on other postings can seem like you are along the lines of Biloxi. maybe it is another "mother" using the same username. it’s a tough world out there and he is thriving off the attention he is getting. We all need to boycott Biloxi and move on. They way he speaks is very angry, like he thinks it’s ok to do drugs, cook drugs, harm others and invade their homes, etc., and be entitled to whatever he wants. he is one that will never open their eyes to another opinion, etc., He doesn’t seem to respect others or be open to discussion, just wants to fight! we should not feel sorry for him. none of this is about him. he’s trying to make it that way. he’s wasting time and space and isn’t worth it. I appreciated your comments on this particular posting.
A peace vigil….what a bunch of morons. Too bad Portland PD couldn’t depoy CS gas on these dumbf*cks.
I’m here down in Texas and I’ve been following this story. I cant believe this loser Jordan Chase’s family got in front of cameras with their attorney. It was so obvious a ploy for money. Jordan Chase was a shameful example of a human being and having seen how his family (and lawyer) blame everyone other than themselves. I’ve heard Oregon is a hot bed for this kind of thinking but this shocks me as an American.
The police did the job we hired them to do. All the idiot moron drug addicts need to do is obey every order a cop gives them and they won’t die. Simple as that.
I don’t want to pass judgement on all cops, but I do want the proper authorities to pass judgement on these three cops, especially the one who shot him in the BACK of the head and has been quoted as saying “I remember thinking, unplug him, unplug him, we’re fucking done with this shit.” I’m not defending this kid who ate way too many shrooms and thought it would be a good idea to go wandering through people’s houses, but he was already pinned by the woman who lived in the house when the cops got there. How fucking hard is it to handcuff someone who’s being held down? What do we pay cops for if they cant figure out to handcuff a 128 pound kid who can’t move? And why don’t we prosecute them for murder when they shoot an unarmed person in the back of the head? Blame this kid all you want for being an idiot, I won’t argue with you, but did he really deserve to be executed when he was posing no immediate threat to anyone?
He wasn’t pinned by the woman in the apartment, he had HER pinned face down.
i’m so sick of these liberals. i believe the deputies die a fine job. if that scumbag killed a deputy – well too bad, comes with the job. now that scumbag is dead – good, safe the taxpayers some money. when do people start taking responsibility for their actions? he was on mushrooms, he had a gun – finished, over out. end of story
Yes he did deserve to be executed…do you think we live in the wild west where a rapist going for a cops gun has to be facing towards the cop who shoots him? No threat? Did you not read he was going for a rifle in a patrol car? James you obviously have no military background or law enforcement. Were the officers supposed to sit around whistling until he removed the rifle and turned towards him? How dumb of a comment is this: "What do we pay cops for if they cant figure out to handcuff a 128 pound kid who can’t move?" Do you really think these big tough cops were just standing around?? Or maybe he was fighting and got free. I’m pretty sure they would have handcuffed a rapist in a woman’s house when he "can’t move." Do your research before you Monday morning quarterback from your safe little cubicle at your meaningless office job.
What makes you think he was a rapist? Any proof?
Exactly Conservative Oregon…there is a lot of nice people I met in Portland..unfortunately they enable people like James by not keeping them in their place and letting them know their behavior is not acceptable. The nice people here are too worried about offending to really express their minds. James is so used to being enabled that he doesn’t realize the truth: people don’t like his kind. Conservative you expressed it perfectly "if that scumbag killed a deputy – well too bad, comes with the job." These are the kind of folks that would just stand-by when they see someone being assaulted or raped (if they aren’t taking part in it). Lastly, James, maybe you better take warning from you past experience with the cops and from Jordan Case’s experience: PEOPLE DON’T TOLERATE DRUG ADDICTED BURGLARS. James I hate to tell you this but most people would shoot YOU if you broke into their homes on mushrooms and YOU would be at fault.
Hi all, I’ve kind of been following this story…I won’t pretend to know all the political aspects so I won’t bore you with my philosophy, I just wanted to share an experience I had with some young Portland folks that came down to my town to eat mushrooms and raise a ruckus. I’m a cop in a small town in southern Oregon. I just try to be nice with the people I meet and for the most part we don’t have too many problems. Last summer I was working and I got some complaints about some people camped out at a local campground. They had been yelling at people driving by on the nearby highway, running in front of traffic, and apparently protesting a local fish that is endangered by irrigation. I went out and met with these folks at their campsite, I guess they would be considered "hippies" (I haven’t met too many people from Portland but they matched pretty much matched the stereotype mentioned by some of the other folks on this page). They immediately became rude with me and told me they had every right to be here to protest. They told me they didn’t believe in "your law" and didn’t want me around. The next night people told me they were again out at the highway with their signs and dancing with colored lights. One motorist told me they had blocked her car and told her they had eaten mushrooms to be "more one with mother earth." Later that night we got a 911 call from their camp. I drove out there and found that they had all locked themselves in their Volkswagen bus (it now had flat tires) and called 911 from a cell phone. I thought this was strange since they had earlier told me they didn’t need people "like me." They came out and told me they had never been so afraid in their lives but some "cowboys" had come out to the campsite and "beat" them up. The cowboys had then pushed their Volkswagen bug into the river. Several of them had black eyes and seemed to get excited about the flashing lights on my patrol car. One of them even started dancing with the lights on the car. I have never seen people act that strange. I’m not a tactics expert but since I was by myself I thought I might have to shoot them if they attacked me but fortunately they didn’t. I try not to judge other people but I kind of see what Austin says. These 7 guys and 2 gals came down trying to push their views and disrupt the lives of our locals (who rarely cause problems themselves). When I asked these 7 fellas how many cowboys "beat them up" they told me, "two." I asked them why they thought they could come down here and act in the way they did and they told me people "like" this kind of behavior up in Portland and they were just showing their "free thought." They also told me they weren’t used to people standing up to them. I told them mushrooms didn’t really give them "magic powers." I let them know folks around my town like to think for themselves and don’t like other people blocking traffic and shoving signs in their faces trying to change it. They told me they would never come down here again. They took the next greyhound out of town (they abandoned their cars at the campsite because none of the tow companies would come out to help them). Like I said I don’t mean to offend anyone I just wanted to tell you about my bizarre experience with people on hallucinogenic drugs.
I am an observer of the view from the friends of Jordan. I might have met him at one point but I’m not sure. I find that some people have become scared to think that something might have gone wrong in general. Whether it the Police or Jordan’s reactions. Yes he was under an influence. He seemed to have super human strength and I can see how any person including the police would start thinking when will he stop, when will this stop. I would think that if he was trying to get into the cop car with his attention turned to the car instead of the police, wouldn’t that be a great opportunity to try to arrest him? Everyone is referring him as a scumbag and a drug addict. I’ve never met anyone who has said you can be addicted to mushrooms(I’ve never tried them myself) Some people just go to far, the first time, or after trying it 100’s of times. Things go wrong. Things go wrong everyday. The copier breaks, you get yelled at by a customer. Events happened and it cannot be undone now. All we can do is hope in the future that when a situation arises like this that a better approach will be taken. Maybe this would have been his waking moment to stop drugs finally realizing it is too much and you can’t control yourself. Yes a person has the right to shoot in self defense, but that is what a person who is untrained can do. I would hope that the police would have tried to take him down instead of out. It’s hard to know what it would be like as a police officer since they had no warning about what Jordan was on. But that is what I would think is part of your job description, being able to think on your feet when this situations get out of control and turns for something totally bizarre. I hope everyone can at least have some empathy toward the family. No matter what type of person he was on or off a drug, people still loved him and cared for him. It sucks I know that he scared the life out of a woman and especially her child. But from what I hear about Jordan I would assume he would apologize and do the right thing in the end. And I hope everyone can take this as a story to help others to overcome drug problems, or people who just need help. Change is what matters most in any story. Unfortunately Jordan will not get his chance to show the world his change
And again, the police tried multiple times to use multiple methods of subduing this monster. It was only after he resisted all of those attempts, including taking multiple taser hits with no effect, that lethal force was used.
Crying about this and whining that the police used inappropriate tactics completely ignores the facts. This idiot got himself so high that lethal means were the only way of stopping him before he hurt someone else. Someone innocent. This is his own damn fault, and that’s the simple truth.
yes, but he was so out of his mind he probably didn’t know how to handle the situation. Yes they told him over and over, but that doesn’t mean you give up patience
Screamingradio…he was a drug addict. You don’t know what it was like to see and hear him every day. you don’t know what it was like to fear that he may try to break into your place because he was high and wanted attention late at night. you don’t know what it was like to fear your home was going to burn down because you could constantly smell him cooking drugs in the middle of the night and he didn’t stop even when other’s tried to help (management, cops prior to him attacking another neighbor). I’m so glad I didn’t answer my door to him that night but very sad that some other victim had to deal with him. you don’t know the whole story. he knew what he was doing. it wasn’t just shrooms that he would do.
As a single female who lives in this city beleive me when I say that if I’ld have found Jordan Case in my apartment stoned out of his mind I’d have shot him myself.