SUSPECT IN SLAYING OF OFFICER COMMITS SUICIDE IN JAIL

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A man accused of fatally shooting a police officer
during a marijuana raid apparently used his bedsheets to strangle himself
in jail this morning, police said.

Steven Dons, who was paralyzed from the waist down in last month's shootout
with officers, was found dead at about 4:30 a.m.

during a routine check on his medical room at the Multnomah County Jail.

"It appears he used some parts of the bedding in the room to strangle
himself,"

sheriff's Lt. Brian Martinek said at a news conference. "It appears he
committed suicide."

"He was not under a suicide watch, no.

We had no reason to believe ... that he was going to kill himself."

The 37-year-old Dons was being held on aggravated murder charges in the
Jan. 27 death of Officer Colleen Waibel, the city's first female officer
killed in the line of duty.

Martinek said Dons' room had been given a visual check twice an hour during
the night. Officers said they last spoke to Dons about 1:30 a.m. and he
said nothing unusual.

It was only when a nurse came in to shift Dons in his bed that officials
realized he was dead. He was not found hanging, but was lying in his bed
and appeared at first glance to be sleeping.

Martinek said Dons was found hooked to part of the apparatus on the bed,
attached by either clothing or bedding.

When asked how a 250-pound in his condition could strangle himself,
Martinek said: "That's what we're looking into."

After a morning news conference, jail officials gave reporters and camera
crews a tour of the fourth floor room where Don's had killed himself hours
earlier.

The 12-by-12-foot cell was equipped with only a wheelchair, a chair piled
with blankets and an adjustable medical bed with a metal T-bar over the
top. Scratched on the inside of the door was some graffiti that read:
"Death to all men."

There also was a glass-enclosed video camera in the corner of the ceiling,
which was covered in dried toothpaste. Police said the camera was obsolete
and was not in use at the time of the suicide.

It was not clear how long the toothpaste had been there.

Lt. Ron Bishop said there have been about 10 suicides since the ward opened
in 1983 and there is very little anyone can do to stop someone intent on
killing themselves.

"If someone has the will, they are going to do it," Bishop said, adding
that one inmate killed himself several years ago by picking up a bed and
dropping it on his throat.

Dons also was charged with attempted aggravated murder and assault in the
shooting and wounding of Officer Kim Keist, and a male officer who was shot
in the hand.

Five officers visited Dons rented home after they smelled marijuana smoke
and had reason to believe he was destroying evidence from a pot growing
operation. While in the process of obtaining a search warrant, they bashed
in his front door with a rock from his front yard and were shot as they
came down a hallway.

Dons held police at bay for 2{ hours before officers used bean bag bullets
and tear gas to apprehend him. He was carried away, nude and bleeding, on
the back of a state police van.

Court documents said that the house where Dons lived contained an arsenal
that included a grenade launcher, shotguns, rifles and handguns including
an M-14 assault-style rifle, a .22-caliber semiautomatic rifle and two
Russian SKS semiautomatic rifles.

Dons allegedly fired at least 10 rounds at officers from an SKS rifle.

The house and a shed on the property contained hundreds of rounds of
ammunition, including a 100-round-capacity magazine with 80 rounds inside.

Police also seized a laser sight, a gas mask canister, at least one
bayonet, a crossbow and a pair of nunchuks -- a martial arts weapon. They
also found "firearms propaganda" and a book titled "Confirmed Kill."

Dons had an extensive arrest record in Las Vegas between 1979 and 1993: Two
counts of obstructing a police officer and single counts of resisting
arrest, resisting a police officer, battery with a deadly weapon, using a
deadly weapon in the commission of a crime, and being an ex-felon in
possession of a firearm.