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"I don't like this book because it don't got know pictures" Chief Rhorerer

“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”

“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”
“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America - mentally unstable cops”

Timothy Cannon, ex-Hillsboro cop, gets 10 years' prison for shooting at officers in Forest Grove



By Emily E. Smith | esmith@oregonian.com 

A former Hillsboro police officer who engaged in a shootout and 81-minute standoff against his fellow officers last winter will spend 10 years in prison.
From the upper level of his Forest Grove home, 47-year-old Timothy Cannon fired  through walls and the floor at responding officers from agencies throughout Washington County. Ten of the officers fired back, authorities say. In total, Cannon’s attorney said, 127 shots were fired.
Cannon took a plea deal Thursday afternoon in Washington County Circuit Court, pleading guilty to three counts of attempted aggravated murder for the shooting and one count of aggravated first-degree animal abuse for killing his family’s cat with a single gunshot to the head. Under the plea agreement, Presiding Judge Kirsten Thompson sentenced him to 10 years in prison.
Thompson called the shooting, which caused no serious physical injuries, “senseless.” The emotional injuries, she said, would be lasting.
“This was a very, very unique case,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Roger Hanlon said Thursday. “There’s really, quite frankly, nothing like it in the history of Washington County.”
The incident began about 8:30 p.m. Jan. 20, 2013, when Lisa Cannon, a civilian member of the Forest Grove Police Department, called 911. Locked in an upstairs bathroom with a revolver and her 5-year-old daughter, she told the dispatcher that her husband had been drinking, had shoved her to the ground and was armed with an AR-15 carbine.
Forest Grove police officers arrived first. Cannon pointed the barrel of his gun over a balcony toward the officers downstairs.
Others from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and Hillsboro police arrived next. Hillsboro Officer Stephen Slade, a longtime friend, tried to reason with Cannon.
“But there was no calming Mr. Cannon,” Hanlon said.
After the first volley of gunfire, Hanlon said, Cannon reloaded, switching to armor-piercing bullets. In an unforgettable incident, he said, this detail in particular stands out to the officers. In the end, Cannon surrendered, descending the stairs with his wife and daughter.
Cannon was subsequently indicted on 26 charges: 11 counts of attempted aggravated murder, 11 counts of unlawful use of a weapon, one count of aggravated first-degree animal abuse, first-degree animal abuse, fourth-degree assault and harassment. He resigned from the Hillsboro department two days after the shooting.
The victims in the case were Cannon's wife and 11 officers: Forest Grove police Officers Gary Anderson, Charles McCutchen, Matt Jacobsen, Jenifer Smith and Ryan Wolf, Washington County Sheriff's Office Cpl. Mark Trost, Deputies Micah Akin, Austin Allen, Rob Richards and Justin Snyder, and Hillsboro Police Officer Slade. Akin, who sustained a shrapnel wound to his hand, was the only person physically injured in the incident.
In the plea agreement, Cannon wrote: “I do not have a clear recollection of the events of 1/20/13. After reviewing the police reports I am satisfied that I attempted to cause the death of Officers Charles McCutchen, Stephen Slade and Austin Allen. I am also admitting that I maliciously killed a cat.”
Hanlon said those three victims, from three different agencies, were chosen to represent all of the officers who responded.
Several cops attended the hearing Thursday. Richards was the only one who spoke at the late afternoon hearing.
“Tim Cannon brought hell on earth,” he said, pausing as he became more emotional.
Let’s not, Richards said, refer to Cannon as a former officer.
“Let’s call him what he is: the gunman that night,” he said.
Cannon was the gunman who held his wife and daughter hostage and tried to kill the law enforcement officers who risked their lives to save his wife and daughter, Richards said.
The number of people affected by Cannon’s actions stretched far beyond the named victims. They included other officers, deputies, dispatchers, “the list goes on and on,” he said.
Richards wonders why no one was killed that night. He asks himself why he wasn’t killed.
“We were all lucky,” he said. “Just like he’s lucky.”
Defense attorney Ray Bassel said Cannon experienced a perfect storm of factors that brought him to a crisis point. He had suffered traumatic events as a cop that weighed on him. He internalized his mental and emotional distress, Bassel said, and didn’t seek help. The day of the shooting, the stress combined with alcohol and Cannon’s “powerful” medications for mental health and a back injury.
“The effects were pretty profound,” Bassel said. “That night was out of character for Mr. Cannon. He wasn’t himself.”
Bassel said there was evidence to support a diminished capacity defense, but Cannon didn’t want to put his family and the officers through a trial.
Cannon spoke briefly in court, growing emotional from the start.
“It is not nearly enough, but I offer my sincere apology to each one of you individually, to your family and to your loved ones,” he said.
He could not explain the “mental collapse” he experienced that night.
“I devastated each one of you and shattered the tender heart of the woman I love most,” he said.
He loves his family, he said. He told them he was sorry.