Something very similar but with much worse results happend here in 2005....
The group of strong young men strained to lift the gray casket from the back of a shiny hearse and into St. George Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church.
It was a burden too heavy for men so young to bear.
Covered with white gladiolas, stargazer lilies and red roses, the casket contained the badly burned body of Fouad Kaady, 27, shot and killed by police on Thursday, Sept. 8. 2005
Kaady, who graduated from Gresham High School in 1996, was “taken suddenly, unexpectedly and apparently unjustly,” said Father Alban West to the crowd of approximately 300 gathered for the man’s standing-room-only funeral service at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 13.
The Story:
Police and Kaady’s family differ on the events that led up to the shooting.
Detective Jim Strovink, Clackamas County Sheriff’s spokesman, said deputies responded to a reported hit-and-run accident in the 13000 block of Southeast Bluff Road at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 8.
On Thursday afternoon, her brother’s truck ran out of gas, Andrea said. Dressed in his trademark shorts and little else, he rummaged around in his truck for his cellular phone, but discovered he’d left it at home.
Kaady was driving his mother’s car from his parent’s Sandy duplex to his truck when his cigarette ignited the gasoline can in the vehicle, Andrea said.
As the car and its driver caught on fire, “he was trying to put himself out” when the vehicle collided with another car, Andrea said. Then Kaady crashed into a second vehicle. A head injury sustained during the second crash explains his erratic behavior, Andrea said, adding that he didn’t use drugs and was against the use of weapons.
Burned, bloody and naked, the man reportedly kicked another man who offered assistance. He reportedly jumped on a woman’s car, beat her sunroof and ran down Southeast 362nd Avenue near Bluff Road.
Sandy Police Officer Williams J. Bergin and Clackamas County Sheriff’s Deputy David. E. Willard repeatedly used Tasers on the man that Strovink described as “combative and totally unresponsive to the audible law enforcement commands to comply.”
Tasers deliver 50,000 volts of electricity through two barbs, but reportedly had no effect. Officers reported that Kaady was “out of control” and at one point was on top of the patrol vehicle.
Both officers shot at Kaady. He died of multiple gunshot wounds at the scene.