Crime & Safety
Grand Jury Transcripts Clarify Events Leading to Shooting of Bodhi Phelps
Phelps, who was shot and killed by Gresham police officers in May, had been described as a threat by his girlfriend.
"I need your help right now. I need the cops. My boyfriend is beating me.... He kicked me and punched me... I need the cops to come as fast possible or he's gonna get away....Get away from me, the cops -- The cops are on the phone, you better run.... Get away from me."
That was from a call to 9-1-1 made by Courtney Sherrell in May as she pleaded for protection from her boyfriend, Bodhi Phelps.
It was one of several calls made that night as Phelps was seen by several witnesses shoving her into a car. The events would lead to Phelps being shot to death by Gresham officers. A grand jury would decide the officers were justified in their actions.
Find out what's happening in Greshamfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
On Friday, the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office released the nearly 400-page transcript of that grand jury.
The transcripts show that in making their decision the grand jurors heard from witnesses to the incident, the officers involved, 9-1-1 calls, the medical examiner, and Sherrell herself.
Find out what's happening in Greshamfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
The transcripts indicate the session had to be halted to let her compose herself.
The officers testified about chasing Phelps and hoping it would end with Phelps being tackled. Instead Phelps charged at the officers who both fired six times - hitting him 11 times.
The medical examiner also made it clear that rumors being spread by protesters that Phelps had been shot in the back were nothing more than that - rumors.
Phelps was shot 11 times, one of which was just a graze wound, the medical examiner testified.
"There's nothing that enters his back," Oregon State Deputy Medical Examiner Clifford Nelson testified. "They were either into his side or from the front."
During her testimony, Sherrell led the grand jury through the lives that she and Phelps lived, how they lived in his car, how they were both drug addicts who had met in treatment five years earlier, how they had used heroin, Xanax, and meth the day before the shooting.
"I am a drug addict," she told the grand jurors. "I needed to get help, treatment."
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.