Lane County District Attorney Christopher Parosa said Eugene police officer Jesse Smith was “justified” in the fatal shooting of Guy Cruz Jr., a fugitive wanted on charges out of Washington state, in an act of self-defense on Nov. 26 in a wooded area near the intersection of Moon Mountain and Laurel Hill Drives.
The Springfield Police Department investigated the shooting as part of the Lane County Interagency Deadly Force Investigation Team.
Parosa said he’s reviewed the case and believes Smith’s use of deadly force was lawful.
Incident overview
The Eugene Police Department was contacted by the U.S. Marshals Service the morning of the incident to assist in the surveillance and apprehension of a suspect out of Washington state, Cruz, who was wanted for violating his federal probation on drug-related charges.
EPD assigned detectives to surveil Cruz while he was staying at a Hampton Inn in Eugene where housekeepers had located ammunition and drug paraphernalia, and requested a small Special Weapons and Tactics unit in the event an opportunity came to arrest Cruz.