Portland officers speak publicly about fatal shooting

PORTLAND – A Portland police officer who fatally shot a suspected armed robber last month fired his gun only after the suspect pointed a gun at the officer’s face.

Sgt. Gary Hutcheson said he instinctively raised his weapon and fired twice when John Dawson pointed the gun his way. When Dawson didn’t relent, Hutcheson fired seven more rounds.

Speaking publicly about the shooting for the first time, Hutcheson and officer Bryan Letarte said Thursday that even as they were staring at Dawson’s lifeless body on the brick sidewalk, they were preparing for questions.

The officers expected to be second-guessed for their fatal split-second decision, and felt relieved by this week’s ruling by the Attorney General’s Office that the shooting was justified.

“There’s no bigger crime than taking someone’s life unjustly,” Hutcheson said. “If you didn’t do something correctly, you’re going to prison.”

The shooting last month in Portland’s West End left Dawson, 21, dead, and the officers wondering if their actions would cost them their jobs and tarnish a department already being scrutinized after a series of excessive-force lawsuits.

The shooting occurred at 3:20 a.m. Feb. 12, after police stopped the cab in which Dawson, a suspect in a recent armed robbery in Gardiner, was a passenger. Police had been told that Dawson was staying at a nearby residence, but they chose not to enter the duplex for fear that hostages might be taken.

“We didn’t want a firefight in the middle of the neighborhood,” Hutcheson said.

With the cab stopped at the intersection of Brackett and Spring streets, the officers saw Dawson in the front seat trying to hide his face. When Hutcheson rapped on the window, Dawson hurriedly locked the door with his elbow and reached for his gun.

“He brought it all the way up and pointed it at my face. He was smiling,” Hutcheson said. “When someone does that, you don’t stop and say, ‘Put down your gun.”‘

Instead, he said, he fired two quick shots.

The first ricocheted off the window, but the second hit Dawson. Stepping backward as he fired, Hutcheson tripped on the curb and fell down. Thinking his supervisor had been hit, Letarte then fired twice through the cab’s rear window.

Hutcheson said he scrambled to his feet, saw Dawson struggling with the cabdriver and aimed at the headrest on the passenger’s side. He fired seven more shots.

Moments later, Dawson’s body was pulled from the cab and placed on the sidewalk. In all, the episode took 1 minute and 40 seconds.

“When I saw him laying there, I thought, ‘Geez, why’d he make us do this,”‘ Hutcheson said. “It was his call 100 percent.”

Police later discovered that Dawson’s 9 mm semiautomatic, stolen from a residence in Augusta, had not been loaded, though a bullet was found outside the cab and another in his pants pocket.