The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office declined to indict the police officer who shot and killed Eric Hurtado in downtown Portland on October 15. The announcement was made Thursday, the same day Portland Police Bureau (PPB) released video footage of the incident, showing the mere seconds between when officers arrived and when shots were fired at Hurtado.
Officers arrived around 4:40 pm to find Hurtado, 36, using a box cutter to assault a man in a downtown hotel alcove. Four seconds elapsed from the time PPB officer Daniel Hall exited his vehicle to the time he fired two bullets at Hurtado, striking him once in the chest.
Medics and police were dispatched downtown after Hurtado assaulted and tried to stab a security guard outside the Dossier Hotel on SW Alder St. The blade on the knife was not extended, according to the DA’s office memo. A few minutes later, Hurtado walked toward St. Honoré Bakery, where he used the same utility knife to repeatedly stab a man in the kitchen area, leaving him with serious injuries. According to the DA’s office, the employee was hospitalized with a lacerated left ear, a lacerated upper left arm and wrist, and lacerations to the left side of his neck, down to the muscle. He also suffered a small fracture to the left humerus bone. The victim was treated and eventually discharged…