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Calle del centro de Portland con un hotel y una panadería en una esquina, vista alusiva al lugar de los hechos
Imagen alusiva: esquina del centro de Portland con hotel y panadería, escenario del caso cerrado por la fiscalía de Multnomah.

Prosecutors close case in Portland police shooting

Body camera footage released Thursday shows Officer Daniel Hall firing twice at Eric Hurtado, who was stabbing employees in downtown Portland on October 15.

--- The context --- Body-worn camera footage from a police shooting in downtown Portland, released on Thursday, shows officers firing twice as the suspect appears to try to stab another man. The officer identified is Daniel Hall, who has served with the bureau for seven and a half years. --- The facts --- At about 4:20 p.m. on October 15, Eric Hurtado, 36, was acting erratically outside St. Honore Bakery at Southwest Washington Street and Broadway. He kicked a security vehicle, then entered a wine store screaming and threw his phone and his wallet. He then entered the Dossier Hotel, picked up an ornamental clock and swung it at the clerk. Outside, he tried to stab a security guard, but the blade was not extended. The first 911 call came at 4:33 p.m. from the hotel: he had assaulted two people and had a box cutter. Hurtado went back to the bakery, entered the kitchen and repeatedly stabbed an employee, who suffered cuts to the left ear, neck, arm and wrist, along with a small fracture of the upper left arm bone. At 4:39 p.m. police responded and Hall saw two men being stabbed outside the Vintage Hotel, in the 400 block of Southwest Broadway. He fired twice and struck Hurtado once. One employee had two stab wounds to the forehead. Hurtado fell, dropped his weapon, reached for it again and appeared to keep trying to stab the man he had been attacking. Hall ordered him to stop and the victims to clear the area. Hall and other officers gave Hurtado first aid before he was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Two victims were hospitalized with serious but nonlife-threatening injuries. A box cutter and a blade were recovered at the scene. --- The positions --- The Multnomah County District Attorney's Office closed the case in a decline-to-prosecute memo also released on Thursday. In indirect terms, the memo states that the investigation will not be presented to the grand jury because there are no material facts in dispute. Relatives of Hurtado said, in the attributed account, that he had been showing signs of serious mental illness and that his family in Southern California hoped to fly him home to get him help. --- What remains unknown --- The source does not describe any prior care or the current condition of the two wounded victims. It also does not say whether a separate internal review will follow the prosecutor's closure of the case. --- Unanswered questions --- What help did Hurtado receive before October 15 for the signs his family describes? How are the two hospitalized victims recovering? Will the bureau publish any further review of that afternoon? --- EPM analysis --- Releasing the video and closing the case at the same time orders the public record: a detailed timeline, two wounded victims and an explicit prosecutorial decision. The attributed family background also raises a prior dimension that the memo does not develop. 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, transparency must run in both directions: releasing the video and closing the case with a written explanation allows the public to judge Hall's actions during an attack in progress, and that record shows first aid given after the shots. But the story does not begin at 4:39 p.m.: the family describes signs of serious mental illness and a plan to bring him home. Understanding what failed earlier, without erasing the gravity of the stabbings, is part of complete and necessary accountability for everyone involved here.
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