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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (March 13, 2013)
M ARCH 13, 2013 S EATTLE , W ASHINGTON V OLUME XXXV, N O . 23 25 CENTS For The Skanner news alerts Text "NEWS" to 503-715-0890 or scan this QR code C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW Did PTSD Lead to Death? RICHARD McIVER Seattle mom on phone with son as Portland police shoot ‘Richard was warm, funny, well-loved and dedicated to his city,’ Mayor Mike McGinn said in a statement on Sunday. ‘My thoughts are with his family and his friends. He will be missed.’ PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED WWW . THESKANNER . COM City Mourns Storied Leader Former Seattle City Commissioner Richard McIver, 1941-2013 A fter years of serious health problems, for- mer City Commis- sioner Richard McIver died Saturday night at age 71. The cause of death has not been reported, but McIver survived a heart attack while in office in 1998, and under- went surgery for prostate can- cer in 2000. More recently he survived a stroke. He was born on June 14, 1941 to Mildred Artis-McIver and William McIver, II, and attended Horace Mann Ele- mentary School. McIver graduated from James A. Garfield High School, and earned a BA in Community Development, with major emphasis in finance and urban planning, from Western Washington University, Fairhaven College in Bellingham. There he was given the “Distinguished Alumnus” honor in 2003. “Richard was warm, funny, well-loved and dedicated to his city,” Mayor Mike McGinn said in a statement on Sunday. “My thoughts are with his family and his friends. He will be missed.” McIver was both beloved and at times reviled. Although he was re-elected three times after being appointed to office in 1997, many bios published since his death focus on his two biggest scandals while in office: an alleged ethics viola- tion in 2008 and a controver- sial 2007 domestic violence incident in which his wife first called 9-1-1 then called back a few minutes later to try dis- suading officers from responding; in that case he was arrested but all charges were dropped. The two incidents marred a long and storied career in pol- itics which saw the Seattle native champion the rights of at-risk communities in areas ranging from gentrification to police accountability, afford- able housing and transporta- tion equity. But it was another memo- rable incident that cemented SEATTLE (Associated Press and staff reports) — The mother of a man fatally wounded by police in Portland, Ore., said she was on the phone with her son when it happened. Antoinette Cisneros told KING-TV in Seattle that her son spoke his final words to her and then she heard gunfire. “I heard everything until the time he was killed,’’ said Antoinette Cisneros told the television station. Police said Santiago A. Cisneros III, 32, had a shotgun and fired at them when they encountered him on a parking lot roof in northeast Portland on the night of March 4. Officers said they returned fire. Cisneros died at a Portland hospital. No officers were injured. He was an Iraq war veteran who had talked about the challenges of post-traumat- ic stress disorder. Cisneros lived in Seattle but was visiting family in Portland last week. His mother said she called him late Mon- day night but didn’t know where he was at the time. She later learned he was driving up a Portland parking garage. Moments later, he told her on the phone that he loved her and stepped out of the car, she said. “He said, `Forgive me, mom. Mom, I love you. I love you, mom.’ And I said, `Mijo, don’t leave, don’t go away. I hear you going away from the car,’’’ Antoinette Cisneros told KING-TV. Soon she heard gunfire, followed by another man’s voice. “He said `stop,’’’ she recalled. ``And then I heard him again say `stop.’’’ Portland police said the shooting unfolded quickly after Santiago Cisneros approached the two officers. “Within seconds, they’re confronted by this guy with a shotgun and shots were fired,’’ police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson said last week. ``The officers returned fire and knocked him to the ground.’’ See MCGIVER on page 3 See SHOOTING on page 3 INDEX News .....................2,3,6 Calendar ....................2 Opinion .......................4 Bids/Classifieds............7 Military Struggles with Stress Diagnoses Report details flaws in Army’s handling of behavioral health issues By Gene Johnson Associated Press SEATTLE (AP) An Army report released Friday finds the service still has trouble diagnosing and treating soldiers for post- traumatic stress disorder, despite more than doubling its number of military and civilian behavioral health workers over the past five years. Confusing paperwork, inconsistent train- ing and guidelines, and incompatible data systems have hindered the service as it tries to deal with behavioral health issues, the report said. It’s a crucial issue: After a decade of war, soldier suicides outpace combat deaths. Last May, the Army commissioned a task force to conduct a sweeping review of how it evaluates soldiers for mental health prob- lems at all its facilities. The review came under pressure from Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, of Washington, who was upset to learn that hundreds of soldiers at Madigan Army Medical Center south of Seattle had had their PTSD diagnoses reversed by a forensic psychiatry team, resulting in a potential cut to their benefits and questions See PTSD on page 3
