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.
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