7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2018
Shooting: OSP investigated the shooting with county’s major crimes team
Continued from Page 1A
on the guns involved, police
reports and an assessment
from a state expert on the use
of force by law enforcement
were also released.
Investigators say Case’s
toxicology report was posi-
tive for methamphetamine and
marijuana.
Case, who was known as
“Deano,” worked at Gorilla
Gas, located near the RV park.
Case’s longtime, on-and-off
girlfriend lived with him until
May, when she left with the
couple’s 4-year-old daughter.
Case’s friends and fam-
ily described him as hot-tem-
pered but unlikely to engage in
a shootout with police.
Several people with knowl-
edge of the shooting said police
did not give Case enough time
to drop his weapons, while
others said the shooting was
justified, according to police
reports.
Dog attack
More than an hour before
the shooting on the afternoon of
July 24, Seaside Police Officer
Jess Vaughan responded to an
incident at the RV park in which
a man was mauled by a dog.
As Rick Derby angrily left
a trailer after a dispute, he
pushed a door open, which
hit a nearby dog, according
to police reports. Derby then
allegedly kicked a water bowl
that also hit the dog before
kicking the animal itself.
The dog bit Derby’s leg
after it was kicked, causing
him to fall to the ground.
While Derby was on the
ground, Case busted through
a nearby fence just before the
dog bit into Derby’s face. Case
pulled Derby off the ground
and guided him to safety.
Some residents said Case’s
actions escalated the situation,
while Derby said Case saved
his life.
Derby was taken to Prov-
idence Seaside Hospital by
one of the RV park tenants
and flown to Legacy Emanuel
Medical Center in Portland.
While one of the dogs
was seized immediately
Clatsop County District Attorney’s Office
An image from Seaside Police Officer Jess Vaughan’s body camera. Cpl. David Davidson is at right. Carl Brian Hussey,
a bystander to the shooting, is next to Davidson in the white shirt. Cashus Dean Case is on the ground behind the
motorcycle on the left.
after the mauling, the owner
had two other dogs that ran
away during the attack. Case,
who was uninjured, became
increasingly agitated.
“If I were you, I’d be over
there putting bullets in all of
them,” Case told Vaughan
about the dogs.
In one recording, Vaughan,
after seeing the amount of
blood and speaking to wit-
nesses, said he would have
shot the dog in that situation.
“Dog comes at me, it’s get-
ting a bullet,” Vaughan said.
After police left, Case
became more agitated, return-
ing to his trailer to get the
black powder pistols. The pis-
tols, which were unloaded,
were single-action, six-shot
revolvers modeled after guns
popular in the 1800s.
Case was prohibited from
owning firearms after previous
felony convictions for drug
and burglary charges.
Witnesses said Case repeat-
edly waved the guns and
threatened to shoot the dogs.
Animated conversation
Case was speaking with
Carl Brian Hussey outside
Case’s trailer before the two
police officers and a civilian
volunteer approached the RV
park on foot about an hour
after the mauling.
Hussey tried to convince
the animated Case to put the
guns away, he told police. He
added that he never felt threat-
ened during the conversation.
As officers approached the
RV park entrance, their view
appeared to be momentar-
ily obscured by a parked Ford
Ranger. At least one of the
guns, inside a brown holster,
was visible, though it was not
immediately clear to the offi-
cers what kind of weapon Case
was holding.
“Which one is he?” David-
son asked.
“Right there, holding a
knife,” Vaughan said.
As officers walked around
the truck, Case was yelling at a
woman in the RV park. At one
point, he said the word “kill,”
though it is unclear what else
he was saying.
Officers raised their guns
immediately after the word
“kill.” Davidson, carrying
an AR-15, stepped ahead of
Vaughan, who was carrying a
pistol.
Upon Davidson’s verbal
command to drop the weap-
ons, Case turned toward the
officers, reached with his right
hand behind his back where
the other pistol was strapped
and started to raise the pistol in
his left hand before Davidson
started shooting.
“He starts bringing them up
in front of him, and it was that
decision point where I knew if
he was able to, if he was able
to level those up and get a shot,
you know, my partner could be
killed, or I could be killed, or
anyone in the group that he
was just threatening,” David-
son told investigators.
Use-of-force analysis
The Oregon State Police
investigated the shooting with
the Clatsop County Major
Crimes Team.
Scott Willadsen, a coordi-
nator with the state Depart-
ment of Public Safety Stan-
dards and Training, conducted
a use-of-force analysis. The
analysis did not draw conclu-
sions about whether the shoot-
ing was justified, but applied
several training techniques to
the encounter.
“The reasonableness of a
particular use of force must
be judged from the perspec-
tive of a reasonable officer on
the scene, rather than with the
20/20 vision of hindsight,” the
analysis advised. “In essence,
an officer is only expected
to make a reasonable deci-
sion based on what they knew
before and at the moment the
incident occurred.”
Some of the factors that
would be considered in train-
ing would be that people were
nearby, the suspect was armed
and that the open area at the
RV park did not allow for
cover, Willadsen wrote.
Most handguns have an
accurate firing range of at least
25 yards, Willadsen said. The
Seaside officers appeared to be
within that range.
Willadsen added that it is
“unreasonable” to try to figure
out if a weapon is loaded when
confronted with what could
be a deadly threat, as officers
learn during confrontation
simulation training.
“In many scenarios the offi-
cers discover that an armed
suspect has an ‘actual’ gun
when they get shot, confirm-
ing the fact that it was a real
gun and loaded,” Willadsen
said. “This is a dangerous way
for an officer to try and logi-
cally analyze the severity of
danger they are dealing with
in a fast-moving and chaotic
situation.”
‘They didn’t
give him a chance’
Davidson was also involved
in a confrontation that left Sgt.
Jason Goodding dead in Feb-
ruary 2016. The two officers
were trying to arrest Phillip
Max Ferry on a felony warrant
downtown when he resisted.
Davidson fired his Taser
at Ferry, who fired one shot
from a pistol back at the offi-
cers, hitting Goodding under
his bulletproof vest. Davidson
then killed Ferry after firing
several rounds.
The district attorney’s
office concluded Davidson
was legally and morally justi-
fied in shooting Ferry.
Davidson was among sev-
eral officers involved in a
December 2015 traffic stop on
U.S. Highway 101 that nearly
became dangerous.
A Wheeler man was
stopped by a Cannon Beach
police officer for a defective
headlight and refused to show
his driver’s license. Follow-
ing a lengthy debate, the driver
started his car.
Davidson, who had placed
a spike strip in front of the car,
drew his gun and ordered the
man to turn off his engine. The
Cannon Beach officer warned
that they did not need to force
the driver to accept a citation.
The citation was placed under
the man’s windshield wiper
and he drove away.
Hussey, who was stand-
ing next to Case before the
shooting at the RV park, asked
investigators why an officer
would shoot with “an innocent
person just standing there.”
“What the hell would
they do that for?” he said. “I
thought they were going to kill
me too.”
Ken Case Sr., Case’s father,
questioned why police had to
use lethal force against his son.
“They didn’t give him a
chance, they murdered him,”
Case Sr. said after watching
the video footage.
Case Sr. said he has not
decided whether to pursue a
lawsuit against the city.
“We all lose. I lost, the city
of Seaside lost,” he said. “I’ll
never get to hug my son again.
He’ll never be able to hold his
daughter. They took all this
away from us.
“We lost, OK. But here’s
how come Seaside lost … As
long as they have people run-
ning things the way they are,
they lose.”
Brenna Visser contributed
to this report.
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