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The BulleTin • Friday, January 21, 2022 A3 LOCAL, STATE & REGION GLADSTONE Officers try to help dogs, end up in gunfight BY NOELLE CROMBIE The Oregonian on bail on $250,000 while her case is pending. As Yvette Lares Garcia got into the back of a Gladstone police patrol car after her ar- rest one evening last fall, she told the officer she was worried about her dogs. Gladstone Officer Clement Lau first needed to take care of Garcia’s arrest. Later, he’d deal with the dilemma of her dogs. Back at the police station, Lau and Gladstone Sgt. Travis Hill talked with Garcia about her pets as she sat handcuffed to a bench in a hallway. Garcia, 36, told them she had recently moved to Oregon. She said she didn’t know any- one who could care for them. They were friendly, she assured them. Everyone loved them, she said. The cops didn’t want the an- imals to suffer. And that is how two vet- eran police officers found themselves in a gunfight in the home of a woman who had earlier been stopped for a mundane traffic violation in Clackamas County. The shooting left Garcia hospitalized, and Hill suffered serious injuries. New details from the Nov. 22 shooting emerged in a hearing Tuesday in Clackamas County Circuit Court. Garcia faces multiple counts of attempted murder or ag- gravated murder, first-degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon. The Clackamas County Dis- trict Attorney’s Office sought to have Garcia held without bail or held on $750,000 bail and be required to post the full amount. Garcia’s lawyer, Michael Ro- mano, sought Garcia’s release Ordinary traffic stop Lau testified about what started as an ordinary traffic stop just before 8 p.m. He saw Garcia driving through a stop sign. Lau stopped Garcia and dis- patchers ran her name for po- tential outstanding warrants. The search returned a hit: Garcia, it turned out, was wanted on a felony theft war- rant from Texas. Detectives in Clackamas County later learned Garcia allegedly em- bezzled $1.4 million from an oil company in Ector County. Lau returned to Garcia’s car and told her she was under ar- rest. She would be extradited to Texas to face charges, he said. By then, Hill had pulled up to help Lau. She was handcuffed and placed in the back of Lau’s car. At the police station, Lau testified that he and Hill even- tually settled on a plan: The officers agreed to drive Garcia home, where she would help get the dogs on leashes so they could be taken to animal con- trol. “I explained what the plan was, how we were going to take care of the dogs,” Hill testified. He told her he didn’t want the officers’ gesture of good will to “go sideways.” “The indication was that she was agreeing that she would be cooperative,” he said. Lau had one more question before they headed out: Did she have any guns at home? Their conversation was cap- tured on his body-worn cam- era, which was played in court. Garcia didn’t answer, accord- ing to the video. The officers doug Beghtel/The Oregonian New details from a Nov. 22 shooting emerged in a hearing in Clackamas County Circuit Court. “I explained what the plan was, how we were going to take care of the dogs. The indication was that she was agreeing that she would be cooperative.” — Clement Lau, Gladstone officer didn’t press the matter. When they arrived at the house, the situation wasn’t what Lau expected. The dogs, a breed Garcia identified for police as XL Bully, were larger than he had assumed. His body-camera footage showed the excited animals barking as Garcia let them into the house. One tried to nip at him, Lau said. Hill managed to get one of the dogs on a leash, Lau tes- tified. Lau held the leash and stayed with the dog in the ga- rage. Hill then headed into the house — and out of Lau’s sight — with Garcia to get the sec- ond dog. Hill said he thought Garcia “had been pretty cooperative” so far, so he decided to let her find her own leash and collar, which she said was upstairs. The dog that was still inside the house was harder to con- tain, Hill said. “I was pretty agreeable that we could go to the bedroom and retrieve that leash,” he said. Handgun spotted Once in the bedroom, Hill didn’t see a leash and collar, he said. At one point, Garcia made a motion to suggest that it was near the door, he said. He glanced briefly in that di- rection and then noticed Gar- cia kneel or bend down, her hands still cuffed behind her. “As she came back up with her hands behind her back, she had a handgun in her hands and turned towards me and said, ‘I am not going to jail’ or ‘I am not going back to (ex- pletive) jail’ and then started shooting,” Hill testified. “I was totally caught off guard think- ing that she was going to have the leash so I hastily tried to get out of the room.” She fired what investigators on Tuesday testified was a 9 mm handgun, he said. “All I could think about was that I was going to get hurt or killed,” he said. Downstairs, Lau said he heard Hill “screaming in pain.” He called “code zero” into his radio, the signal used when of- ficers’ lives are in danger or un- der attack. Hill yelled that Garcia had a gun, Lau testified. Over and over, the men or- dered Garcia to drop the gun. “No!” she can be heard say- ing on Lau’s body-worn cam- era recording. Hill scrambled downstairs and additional officers arrived to arrest Garcia. Investigators testified that the officers fired a total of 15 rounds. Garcia, they con- cluded, fired three. She hit Hill twice, below his knee and in his arm, the offi- cer testified. Garcia was struck multiple times, including in her leg, spine, arm and abdo- men, according to court testi- mony. During the hearing, Hill walked in with a slight limp, a sign of the lingering effects of his injury. He testified that he sustained nerve damage in his leg and is still in pain. He re- mains on medical leave. Lau, who previously worked as a Portland police officer, is back on the job. The hearing spanned more than 10 hours. Garcia sat next to her lawyer, her hair in two French braids and her waist and ankles in shackles. She was hospital- ized as a result of her injuries, which one of her friends said left her in pain and in need of physical therapy. She admitted under ques- tioning that she shot Hill. The fate of her dogs is un- clear. In the end, the judge called Garcia’s actions deceptive. She had told police she didn’t know anyone who could care for her dogs and yet a man she worked with in Hillsboro described their relationship as close, Weston said. When asked if she had a gun at home, she didn’t respond, he noted. He sided with the district at- torney and kept her bail at the full $750,000. STOREWIDE CLEARANCE SALE! Up To 50% off * Select Furniture and Mattresses IN A G R A B S ’ N O R S E L T I W * CEN F F O % 75 o t p U Free Delivery & Special Financing Available** 2017 S Hwy 97, Redmond • 541-548-2066 63485 N Hwy 97, Bend • 541-330-5084 www.WilsonsOfRedmond.net **See store for details. *Off Compare at Price
