SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A grand jury has ruled three officers were justified in the fatal shooting of a man after officers attempted to stop his car in Salem, Ore.
Marion County District Attorney officials said Richard Allan Meyers was struck by five bullets police fired. Dashcam video of the shooting provided to the Statesman Journal shows multiple officers firing more than a dozen times at Meyers, who was in his vehicle.
Officers testified Meyers, 40, raised what looked like a firearm at officers following an attempted traffic stop and chase in the early hours of Feb. 7.
Police later reported the object Meyers raised was a pellet gun.
Officials said there was significant testimony regarding Meyers’ mental health before a grand jury released its decision evening. During the grand jury hearing, state police testified Meyers had previously made multiple statements to people about committing suicide, specifically wanting law enforcement to shoot him.
Meyer was hit twice in the arm, twice in the torso, once in the right thigh, all toward the right side of his body.
The video footage shows officers following the shots being fired waiting behind a Salem Police car and repeatedly yelling at Meyers to “show” his hands, get out of the car and lay on the ground.
Meyers repeatedly yells that he can’t do those things because he’s been shot. He screams and pleads for help several times, twice yelling “I can’t breathe.”
“I’m dying,” he yells back to police at one point.
Police said they provided first aid to Meyers once he was out of the car and on the ground. He was taken to Salem Hospital where he died of his injuries.
The grand jury heard testimony from four civilians, witnesses from the Salem Police Department, investigators from the Oregon State Police, and Meyers’ sister, Rachel Coble.
Coble said her brother had reached out for help on several occasions.
“He was turned away every single time because he was an addict, because he was homeless, because he had a criminal background,” Coble said. “They used that to dehumanize him and used it as an excuse to murder him and I will not let them do this to anyone else.”
