Depot worker shot in police confrontation

This story was published Thu, Feb 1, 2001

By Karen Zacharias
Herald Oregon bureau

PENDLETON - An Oregon State Police officer shot a 44-year-old Umatilla Chemical Depot employee at the Pendleton man's home about 4:15 p.m. Wednesday after the man reportedly threatened to shoot police.

David Miller, of 320 S.E. 45th St., was taken by ambulance to St. Anthony Hospital in Pendleton and later was flown to Oregon Health Sciences University Hospital in Portland. Hospital officials declined to release information regarding the nature of Miller's injuries or his condition.

However, The Associated Press quoted Casey Beard, emergency management director for Morrow County, as saying the suspect was shot in the arm.

There were no other injuries.

Depot spokeswoman Mary Binder said the incident occurred after the former construction worker, who had worked on the depot's incinerator project, made threats to several employees and the depot.

Lt. Darin Helman of the Oregon State Police confirmed depot officials called state police and reported Miller had been at the union hall in Pasco on Wednesday making threats.

Miller is a member of the Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 598 in Pasco, said Lynn Norman, one of the union's business agents.

The depot, seven miles west of Hermiston, stores 220,604 munitions and containers filled with 7.4 million pounds of deadly nerve and mustard agents. The Army plans to begin burning the weapons in an incinerator in October.

Miller had been off work for several months after an on-the-job accident at the depot where he worked on the incinerator. Norman said Miller injured his leg or ankle in a fall.

Miller is not one of the employees named in a lawsuit recently filed against the depot claiming exposure to nerve gas.

Joining state police at Miller's home Wednesday were the Umatilla Tribal Police, Pendleton police and the FBI. Miller's home is on tribal land and under the jurisdiction of the FBI and tribal police.

Umatilla County District Attorney Chris Brauer declined to release the name of the officer who shot Miller.

"This investigation is an active one and will be for the next several days," he said.

Brauer, who arrived at the crime scene in a baseball cap and leather jacket, said Miller had been shot by police because he posed an immediate threat to the safety of others.

Brauer pointed to an towering aluminum structure at the end of the concrete driveway and said, "It is my understanding that he was shot between his shop and the front door of the family's manufactured home."

Neighbor Carl Montgomery said Wednesday that he wasn't even aware anyone's life was in danger. Montgomery's split-level home sits kitty-corner from Miller's manufactured home.

And his garden lies dormant directly across the street from the area where Miller reportedly was shot.

"I was sitting down reading the paper when I heard a shot," Montgomery said.

But gunshots are nothing new in this rural Riverside neighborhood.

"You hear shots out here all the time," Montgomery said.

But when the shot was followed by a loud wail, Montgomery knew it wasn't a train whistle he was hearing.

"All of sudden, all these police cars arrived," he said.

That was followed by a knock on the door.

"A police officer came over and told me what had happened. He said they'd told him (Miller) to put his gun down or they'd shoot. He didn't and they did," Montgomery said.

Montgomery said his neighbor didn't seem to be the kind of fellow who would disturb anyone. Montgomery said Miller is the father of two young boys.

"One is about 1 1/2 and the other about 4," he said.

Montgomery, who holed up inside his home watching the nightly news after the incident, said he has lived in the same neighborhood for 22 years and it never had any sort of crime problem before.

"The only shots we usually get come from hunters," he said.

 

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