Portland police shot and killed a suspect while investigating a robbery

The man shot by Portland police Monday night at a home in the Hazelwood neighborhood was a suspect in a robbery earlier in the day, police said.

Officers responded to an armed robbery at a Northeast Portland business around 9 a.m. Monday, police said in a statement Tuesday. Police did not identify the company.

By the time police arrived, the suspects were already gone, but investigators learned the people involved may have been at a home in the 100 block of Southeast 124th Avenue. Police obtained a search warrant and around 5:15 p.m. SWAT team officers came to the home and served the search warrant, police said.

People who live in the neighborhood said they saw “military-style” vehicles on the street and heard officers ordering people inside to come out with their hands up. About a half-dozen people eventually emerged and were handcuffed across the street in the parking lot of a drug rehabilitation clinic, neighbors said.

A neighbor said she saw three or four officers with helmets and rifles in her backyard as they approached the home.

Around 6:30 p.m., the neighbor said she heard several shots from various weapons and then a “boom,” which she said was the sound of officers punching a hole through a wooden fence to get into the home’s backyard that the police conducted a raid.

She said she believes the man who died was in a trailer at the back of the property.

Police said the man shot at them first and they returned fire, killing him at the scene. They said they later found a weapon near him. Police did not release the man’s name.

They said four officers “directly involved” in the shooting should be placed on regular paid administrative leave while police investigate the shooting. They did not give the names of the officials.

Officers arrested two people at the scene: Paige Smouse, 21, and Kristian Nelson-Trout, 22, they said. Smouse was arrested on two counts of robbery and one count of hindering prosecution. Nelson-Trout was arrested on a previous charge of violating his probation.

A neighbor said the home where the warrant was served had been a nuisance during the eight months he had lived in the neighborhood. Cars come and go from the property 24 hours a day, he said.

— Fedor Zarkhin is a breaking news and business reporter with a focus on crime. Reach him at 971-373-2905; fzarkhin@oregonian.

— Tanner Todd covers crime and public safety. Reach them at [email protected]or 503-221-4313.

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