<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">The Orgonian
Richard
C. Dickie Dow grabbed a school
officer, police say; his parents deny it
Thursday, October 22 1998
By
Maxine Bernstein of The Oregonian
staff
Richard
C. "Dickie Dow", a mentally ill
Portland man who died in police custody
Tuesday, aggressively turned on a school
police officer who tried to question him
about an apparent fight outside a
doughnut shop, police said Wednesday in
their first account of the incident.
Detective
Sgt. Cheryl Kanzler, a Portland
Police Bureau spokeswoman, said Dow was
shouting obscenities and speaking
unintelligibly. He then grabbed both of
Portland School Officer Dennis McClains
arms when McClain got out of his car on
North Lombard Street to investigate a
police call outside Winchell's Donut House
around 10 p.m. Monday.
"He
just turns on him, comes at him and
grabs him," Kanzler said. "Dow has his
arms pinned and is moving the officer
down the street."
The
police account, based on
investigators' initial interviews of
officers involved in the altercation,
conflicts with statements Dow's mother,
stepfather and other neighborhood
witnesses gave shortly after Dow was
pronounced dead early Tuesday at Legacy
Emanuel Hospital.
"I
can only tell you what I saw with my
own eyes," Barbara Vickers, Dow's
mother, said Wednesday. "When I walked
out and down the block, it was not my son
who was holding onto anybody. The officer
was holding my sons arm and swinging him
around in circles. I really do not expect
the truth because the police are going to
put a spin on it the way they want to."
Dow's
relatives and neighborhood
witnesses contend police used excessive
force with Dow and mishandled the
situation, ignoring pleas from his mother
and stepfather to let them calm their son,
who suffered from paranoid
schizophrenia.
Since
the incident late Monday night and
Dows unexplained death early Tuesday,
Portland police had released few details
on the incident.
On
Wednesday afternoon, detectives
began interviewing officers who either
were directly involved in the altercation
or witnessed it. They scheduled additional
interviews with officers through next
week. Two primary homicide detectives
are handling the investigation, with help
from the East County Major Crimes Team
and the Multnomah County district
attorneys office.
Police
also Wednesday released the
names of the officers they are
interviewing. In addition to McClain, the
Portland Police Bureau officers are
Steven Andrusko, James Darby, Anthony
Christianson, John Rebman, Kathleen
Pahlke and Sgt. Chris Uehara, all of North
Precinct; and Tom Lawton and Randal
Yoshimura from Northeast Precinct.
According
to the police account released
Wednesday, two men were standing in the
parking lot of the doughnut shop Monday
night when Dow walked up and challenged
them to a fight. A truck driver noticed a
disturbance and called 9-1-1 from the
shop at 10:11 p.m.
McClain,
who was in the area, responded
to the call, radioing his arrival across the
street from the shop at 10:12 p.m.
McClain saw Dow walking south across
North Lombard Street when he stopped
his car and got out, Kanzler said.
"He
asks Dow, 'What's going on? What's
happening here?' Mr. Dow is very
aggressive in his mannerisms. Mr. Dow
walks towards him while saying
obscenities and rather bizarre things to
him," she said.
Police
said that when Dow grabbed
McClain, the school officer radioed at
10:12:58 for police to "step up cover." At
10:14 p.m., McClain radioed for Code 3,
the heightened emergency code that
signals an immediate response from other
police.
"During
the struggle, the officer is able
to get to his radio to call for Code 3
cover," Kanzler said. The officer is trying
to break away.
Dow's
mother and stepfather, who live on
North Fenwick Avenue, heard Dow
screaming for help. They both ran from
their house and said they saw an officer
holding Dow's arm and trying to spin him
around. The mother and stepfather said
they both pleaded with the officer not to
hurt their son because he suffered from
a mental illness and that they could calm
him down. By the time other officers
arrived, Dow's mother and stepfather
were both handcuffed and taken into
custody.
Police
have not discussed what occured
next other than saying officers tried to
subdue Dow, whom they described as
being in an "extremely agitated state."
Police did confirm Wednesday that
officers used both pepper spray and
batons to try to subdue him.
Dow
stopped breathing at the scene, but
paramedics revived him before
transporting him to the hospital. An
autopsy conducted Tuesday showed Dow
sustained two rib fractures and several
bruises and scrapes but no injuries
sufficient to explain his death.
Portland
Mayor Vera Katz met
Wednesday with several police
commanders and Kanzler for an update on
the investigation. Katz said she plans to
meet today with Chief Charles Moose,
who has been out of town attending an
International Association of Chiefs of
Police Conference in Utah, and have a
news conference.
Meanwhile,
Dow's family is planning a
candlelight vigil at the corner of North
Fenwick and Lombard Street at 9 p.m.
Friday.
"Were
all concerned that we will be able
to get through the questioning of the
officers as soon as possible. There's
nothing were going to be able to say until
that work is done," Katz said.