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.
