Witnesses say police not justified in shooting naked man

from KGW.com

SANDY -- Two witnesses testified Tuesday before a Clackamas County grand jury deliberating whether police were justified in fatally shooting a naked, unarmed Gresham man last month.

Both witnesses indicated they agree with the man’s family that Fouad Kaady should not have been shot.

“I have no idea why they shot him. I honestly don’t. I thought they were there to help him," said witness Elaine Thornlimb.

She said she called 9-1-1 when she saw him bleeding, burned and naked, walking alongside the road north of Sandy. She said at first he smiled and waved, but as she followed him, he grew agitated.

“At one point he did turn around, yell something and jump on my car and jumped up and down on my sun roof and left blood on my car,” she said. Kaady wasn't armed, according to Thornlimb.

On the day of last month's shooting, the officers received a report of a hit-and-run car accident and arrived to find Kaady naked. As police tried to get him under control, he became combative, they said. The officers tried to taser him but were not able to get Kaady to calm down.

At one point Kaady got on top of the patrol vehicle, which is when at least one of the officers shot him.

Kaady died at the scene.

The second witness testified that Kaady had been behaving strangely, but when officers arrived, he calmed down until they used a taser on him.

“He was on the roof of the cop car and it wasn’t more than maybe about less than a minute…and they unloaded and fired off the shots on him," said witness Paul White.

White and Thornlimb said that while Kaady may have acted irrationally, he didn't deserve to be killed.

More witnesses were expected to testify on Wednesday and the grand jury could reach a decision by Thursday.

Officers shot and killed Kaady when he was wandering on SE 362nd Ave. in Sandy in early September.

“There must be an accountability of some sort to those that misused their position of authority to use it to take life when life should not have been taken,” Zania Kaady, Fouad Kaady's sister said Monday as protesters gathered outside the courthouse.

The sheriff's office identified the two officers who fired at Kaady as as 24-year-old William Bergin, a Sandy Police officer, and 44-year-old deputy David Willard of the Clackamas County Sheriffs Office.