SUSPECT IN POLICE SHOOTING FOUND DEAD

The medical examiner rules that Steven Douglas Dons, accused of killing
Officer Colleen Waibel, strangled himself with a bedsheet

The man accused of killing a police officer last month during a drug raid
was found dead Wednesday morning in his jail medical room, the victim of an
apparent suicide.

Steven Douglas Dons, 37, twisted a bedsheet around his neck and tied it to
the frame of his adjustable hospital bed to strangle himself, said
Multnomah County Sheriff's Detective Gary Muncy. Dons, who was paralyzed
from the waist down when wounded during the shootout, wedged his right arm
through the rungs of the bed's side rail for leverage. He tightened the
noose by raising the bed about one foot, pressing the controls with his
left hand.

Dons was not under suicide watch, and it was unclear whether he had talked
of killing himself.

At a news conference in front of the Justice Center jail, Dons' attorney,
Andrew Bates, called for the state attorney general's office to conduct an
independent investigation.

"We don't suspect foul play, but we don't know," Bates said. "A lot of
people out there didn't like Steven Dons."

A member of the Justice Center jail medical staff found Dons dead about
4:45 a.m., Muncy said. The staff member entered Dons' room to give him
regular medical treatment, said Lt. Brian Martinek, a Multnomah County
sheriff's spokesman. Dons needed to be moved every three hours because of
his injuries.

Dons, who weighed about 250 pounds, was lying in bed. The staff tried to
revive him but did not use "extraordinary" measures because he obviously
was dead, Martinek said. Dons was not taken to a hospital.

Officials do not know how long Dons had been dead. The last time jail staff
know Dons was alive was about 1:30 a.m., when they did a medical check,
Martinek said. Staff members gave him treatment and talked to him. Martinek
would not say what Dons talked about.

"There was nothing out of the ordinary," Martinek said.

Dons was being held in a medical unit on the jail's fourth floor. He was in
a room by himself. The bed in Dons' room was similar to a hospital bed with
a T-bar above.

During the three hours between medical treatments, corrections deputies
made visual checks twice an hour through a window on Dons' locked door,
where they could see him in bed. The room had a low-light "night light,"
which provides enough light to see everything but is dim enough to allow
inmates to sleep, Martinek said.

"He appeared to be sleeping," Martinek said.

Muncy said a rolling table used to serve meals might have partially blocked
deputies' view of Dons through the window. In addition, the lack of
contrast of the sheet against Dons' neck might have made it difficult to
see.

Bates said he last saw his client Friday and he did not believe Dons was
suicidal.

"He was upbeat and engaged in his defense," Bates said.

"We do have some information we will provide to investigators about his
treatment in the facility that may be pertinent to his death," Bates said
after the news conference. He would not elaborate.

Dons did not leave a suicide note, Muncy said. "I am told he had been
recently talking about" suicide, he said.

Officials originally said Dons showed no signs of being depressed or
suicidal, but backed off those statements later Wednesday.

"There has been different information regarding that, and we're trying to
clarify that," Martinek said.

Inmates on suicide watch are held in special cells with constant
supervision and are not allowed access to bedsheets and other items that
they could use to commit suicide, said sheriff's Cmdr. Jeanie King.
Psychiatric nurses determine whether inmates are placed on suicide watch.

Since the Justice Center jail opened in 1983, 10 inmates have committed
suicide, Martinek said.

Dons died of asphyxia by strangulation, said Dr. Larry Lewman, state
medical examiner. Lewman ruled Dons' death a suicide.

Lewman confirmed that Dons' injuries were consistent with Muncy's account,
including bruises on Dons' right arm where he braced himself on the bed
rail.

The attorney general does not typically investigate inmate suicides unless
the district attorney or governor requests it, said spokeswoman Kristen
Grainger. Multnomah County District Attorney Michael Schrunk said he did
not know of any reason the case should be investigated by an independent
agency but would be willing to discuss it with Bates.

Sheriff Dan Noelle asked the East County Major Crimes Team, consisting of
members of the sheriff's office and Gresham and Troutdale police
detectives, to conduct an investigation.

Martinek said jail staff was not to blame for Dons' death, although
commanders will review the case.

"There was no conduct recorded outside the policies and procedures of this
facility," he said.

In fact, Muncy said, the jail staff was upset by Dons' death.

"They were pretty well devastated," he said. "They put in a lot of work
keeping his spirits up.

"It's a shame. I know there are people who will say he got his comeuppance
by his own hand, but it's a shame."

James McIntyre, the Multnomah County senior deputy district attorney who
was handling the case, said Dons' suicide prevented a long battle over a
death penalty case.

"My reaction is that I'm glad it's over now rather than dragging on 15
years," he said.

Officer Kim Keist, who was wounded in the shooting, is relieved, said her
husband, Noble Keist.

"She doesn't have to lay there and worry about the upcoming court case in
which she would have to relive it all." On the other hand, he said, there
are "some wild theories" about what happened during the raid, and a trial
would have brought out the facts.

Keist said Dons killed himself "because he's a coward and didn't want to
face the possibilities of what would happen to him in prison. He didn't
want to lay there and wait for the lethal injection."

Officer Colleen Waibel, 44, was killed in the shootout. Her husband,
Portland police Sgt. Mark Fortner, did not think it was appropriate to
comment on Dons' death, said East Precinct Cmdr. Mark Paresi.

Police say Dons shot and killed Waibel and wounded Keist and Sgt. Jim
Hudson when they forced their way into the house in which he was living at
2612 S.E. 111th Ave. The Jan. 27 drug raid started as a report that someone
inside the house was growing marijuana. When police saw smoke that smelled
like burning marijuana coming from a chimney, they broke down the front
door, fearing that evidence was being destroyed. Inside the front door,
they were met by gunfire.

With Dons dead, McIntyre said he felt able to talk about the case.

"He ambushed them," McIntyre said.

Bates fired back.

"What do you expect the (district attorney) to say?" he said. "Steven Dons
is not the monster portrayed by the media. The truth is, he felt a great
deal of remorse and sorrow for the death of Officer Colleen Waibel."

Dons' roommate, Jeffery Harlan Moore, 44, told The Oregonian on Feb. 5 that
Dons admitted to him that he shot the officers. Dons, who had trouble
hearing, claimed that he didn't know police were at the door and thought
they were others intending to harm him, Moore said.

"He didn't know who they were," Moore said. "He really regrets what he's done."

Moore, who was arrested Feb. 12 on drug and child endangerment charges,
remains in the Justice Center jail.