Questions remain over man's arrest

This story was published Mon, May 7, 2001

By Karen Zacharias
Herald Oregon bureau

PENDLETON - It's the questions from her 6-year-old son that nag at Tracey Miller during the dead of night.

"He asks, 'My daddy's not a bad man, why is he in jail?' "

But Tracey Miller doesn't know how to answer the boy's question. She can't explain why her husband, David, was shot by Oregon State Police Detective Mike Davis - a family friend - in an altercation earlier this year.

"What I have wanted to believe is Mike shot David to disarm him. But I wasn't here when the shooting happened, and I don't know if that's the case," she said.

Tracey Miller wants to explain how a combination of mounting medical bills and no job could lead her husband to despair, but she knows the boy is too young to understand.

She's convinced a mounting despair is behind allegations that David Miller, 44, threatened to kill an employee of the Umatilla Chemical Depot on Jan. 31.

Miller is being held at the Umatilla County jail. Bail has been set at $500,000. He was charged with seven counts of unlawful use of a weapon, a felony. If convicted, Miller faces up to five years in prison. A pretrial hearing is set for June.

Tracey Miller believes her husband of 12 years was more of a threat to himself than anyone else that night. Two accidents at the depot had left him unable to work or support his family.

In February 1999, Miller fell from a scaffolding at his job at the depot and injured his leg. He went back to work last July, when he became snarled up in some piping and wrenched his back, his wife said.

After the second incident, Miller was unable to work. Tracey, who works for the Justice Department in Pendleton, became the family's sole financial provider.

And her salary simply wasn't enough. The couple sank further and further into debt, she said. A dispute with the insurance company added more complications. David Miller grew more and more agitated, she said.

On Jan. 31, he allegedly called Gary Barcom, business manager of Plumbers and Steamfitters Union Local 598 in Pasco and threatened people at the depot.

Barcom called depot officials. They alerted the Oregon State Police, and officers intercepted Miller at his Pendleton home shortly after 4 p.m.

Police said Miller gripped a semi-automatic rifle and refused orders to drop the weapon.

The standoff escalated, and Miller was shot and wounded by Davis, police said. Miller underwent surgery on his left arm at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland.

There's been little help since, Tracey Miller said.

Wes Kilgore, jail administrator, told county commissioners in a recent budget hearing that there is no money for a staff psychiatrist.

That frustrates Tracey Miller. She said her husband has not received any sort of mental health treatment.

"David wants help. Prosecutors in court said what a threat he is. If they really want to protect society, wouldn't they get him the help he needs?" she asked.

"My hope is that if they don't want to pay for help, they'll let him out so we can get him the help he needs."

 

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