DA: Bend police say they shot woman after chase as her van sped toward officer, K-9
Hummel expects to finish investigation, release findings by end of month
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Two Bend police officers said they shot and seriously wounded a Bend woman after a pursuit on Highway 20 east of Bend last week when she put her minivan in reverse, hit the gas and sped toward a third officer and his K-9, Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel said Tuesday.
Hummel released initial findings of his investigation into the March 9 officer-involved shooting that wounded Danielle Bower, 29, saying he expects to complete it and release his findings by the end of March.
Sgt. Thomas Russell, Officer Tim Williams and Officer Victor Umnitz were later identified by Bend police as the three officers involved who were placed on paid administrative leave after the incident.
Hummel said Bower was shot after her minivan went off the north side of Highway 20E about 40 miles east of Bend. While it had been reported the pursuit began at St. Charles Bend, the DA said from there it went through downtown Bend, south on the Bend Parkway, north on Third Street, east on Reed Market Road, north on 15th Street and then east on Highway 20.
After Bower’s minivan left the highway near milepost 39, the three officers got out and approached the vehicle, Hummel said.
“The officers report that when they were approaching her (van) on foot, Ms. Bowers placed her car in reverse, slammed on the gas and quickly accelerated toward one of the officers and his K-9.” (Umnitz is the only K-9 handler among the three officers identified previously; his dog is named Rony.)
“The officers state that they shot Ms. Bower to protect their colleague and his dog from being struck and potentially killed by Ms. Bower’s car,” Hummel wrote.
Immediately after shots were fired, the three officers ran to Bower to render medical aid, the DA said. They called by radio for an AirLink air ambulance, but the helicopter was grounded due to weather.
As a result, the officers put Bower in one of their patrol cars and sped west, back toward Bend, meeting a Bend Fire ambulance crew halfway and transferring her to it for the rest of the trip to the hospital.
“Ms. Bowers is alive and recovering,” Hummel said.
The Tri-County Major Incident Team was deployed to the scene and Oregon State Police were assigned as the lead agency. The OSP Forensics Lab responded and processed evidence at the scene.
Hummel confirmed the initial report that the incident began early that morning when a St. Charles security officer summoned a Bend police officer to help Bower, who he said "was covered with blood and acting erratically outside the emergency room.”
“When the responding officer began to engage with Ms. Bower, she jumped in her minivan and fled the scene,” Hummel said; police said earlier she’d driven recklessly through the hospital parking lot to elude them, driving over curbs and landscaping.
“The details of how Ms. Bower was shot, and why she was covered with blood at the start of this incident, are still under investigation and will not be released now,” Hummel said in Tuesday’s news release, adding, “The investigation is expected to be concluded by the end of March.”
“I do not know Danielle Bower,” Hummel said in a concluding statement, “but it’s become clear to me that many members of our community do, and that she is an important person in their lives. As I investigate this case, I constantly think of her and her two young children. I also think of the involved officers and their families.
“Know that the compassion I feel for Danielle and the involved officers is real and that my decision will not be influenced by these feelings,” the district attorney wrote. “I will base my decision on the facts and the law. And when I complete my investigation, I’ll announce to the public my legal conclusion and the factual basis for it.”
