MAY 14, 2021, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A9
Internal investigation: City manager told
others he was breaking policy on firearms
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
An internal investigation report into
the discharge of a firearm by the former
city manager found that Chris Eppley had
carried loaded and unloaded firearms into
the Keizer Civic Center on numerous occa-
sions prior to discharging one in his office
on March 4.
At the behest of the
Keizer City Council, the
internal
investigation
report was made public
Friday, May 7.
The city released a
series of questions and
answers to coincide with
the report. Those can
be found on page A11.
Keizertimes
submitted
another list of questions
to city representatives
and we’ve reprinted those
with answers on page A1.
The full 248-page report
can be read at www.keizertimes.com for
free.
In an incident report stemming from
the discharge, Eppley stated he had never
brought a complete firearm into city hall
before and that he was "preoccupied" on
March 4.
In interviews with the investigator,
Eppley admitted to minimizing details,
misleading fellow city employees and
being “untruthful” in the incident report.
The city has workplace violence poli-
cies prohibiting firearms in the civic center
aside from police officers, or unless given
permission by one of three officials. No
evidence Eppley had such permission has
been made public.
Eppley had shown two current Keizer
Police Department officers, Police Chief
John Teague and Lt. Trevor Wenning, and
four former or retired police officers fire-
arms while in his office. Eppley produced
the weapons from a concealed holster, his
desk and a gym bag. Eppley holds a con-
cealed carry license.
Eppley told the investigator, that when
• A former KPD lieutenant, Lance
Inman, told an investigator that Eppley
had shown him firearms in Eppley’s office
on as many as three additional occasions.
Inman said Eppley produced weapons
from his desk and that they appeared “fully
assembled and operable.”
• Eppley said that he had come into the
building on weekends without disarming
himself.
• Eppley had
components of his
weapons delivered
to the Keizer Civic
Center, but said
“usually
they’re
small pieces.”
• Eppley told
investigators he
had done no safety
checks on the gun
prior to bringing
it into his office on
March 4.
• Eppley dis-
posed of the bullet after the incident.
He later admitted that the bullet and the
spent cartridge could have had some sig-
nificance in the investigation and that dis-
posing of them in his office waste can was
inappropriate.
• City officials waited 13 days, until
March 18, to contact Oregon State Police
and ask for an investigation into the inci-
dent and help determine whether a crime
had been committed.
• On March 29, OSP released a report
asserting no crime had been committed.
Eppley’s conduct was “careless” but not
“reckless,” according to the report.
• Eppley told an OSP officer who was
investigating the incident that he had not
My decision making
around this has
been poor … so not
very well.
— CHRIS EPPLEY
Former Keizer city manager
showing his weapons, he “probably would
have said, 'Hey, don’t tell HR, I’m violating
policy right now.'” When the investigator
asked how making such a statement would
bode for a city manager, Eppley said, “My
decision making around this has been
poor … so not very well.”
During the investigation, Eppley stuck
to his claims that the March 4 incident was
the first time he brought a complete and
loaded weapon in the civic center. He only
revised his statement after a former Keizer
police officer, who had seen him with a
guns in his office on other occasions, con-
tacted Eppley and told him to "be truthful."
Here are some of the other key findings
of the report:
previously carried a gun into the office.
• Tammie Harms, who shares an office
wall with Eppley, told the investigator she
did not think about the potential of her
own harm until after returning home.
• Eppley told another employee that
there had been a lot going on and he was
late for a Zoom meeting the day of the dis-
charge in his office.
• More than 24 hours after the incident,
the Keizer Police Department had not
been notified of the gun discharge. A state-
ment from Keizer’s pro tem city manager
attached to the report states that notifying
the Keizer Police Department would have
been “a conflict of interest.”
• Police Chief John Teague, after inquir-
ing about the incident, told Eppley that it
didn’t appear a crime had been committed
because there was no one in the proximity
of the desk when the shot was fired.
• The model of gun fired in the civic
center office was a Walther PPQ M2,
Eppley told an investigator it was, “Pretty
much my gun that I don’t know that well.”
There may have been additional rounds in
the gun, but Eppley said he did not know
how many.
The investigation completed by
Ferraris Investigations and Consulting
was completed in late March at a cost of
nearly $8,000 to taxpayers. It was withheld
from the public despite numerous requests
from the Keizertimes. The newspaper was
preparing to appeal the matter in Marion
County Circuit Court when the Keizer City
Council voted to make the report public.
Eppley has been hired by Marion
County since offering his resignation in
early April. He was appointed to lead wild-
fire recovery efforts in Detroit as its city
manager.