GRAND RONDE, Ore. – A 17-year-old Silverton teen and the deputies who shot and killed him after an armed carjacking and police chase Saturday were identified Monday afternoon.
The name of the teen is Baltazar Escalona-Baez.
The Polk County Sheriff's Office deputies involved in the shooting are Kelly Lorence, Mike Stevenson and Sgt. Kevin Haynes. Haynes is an 18-year veteran of the sheriff's office. Stevenson has two years on the job and Lorence has been with the department a year and a half.
All three deputies are on paid administrative leave pending the results of the investigation by the Oregon State Police. Once the investigation concludes, the district attorney's office will present it to the Polk County Grand Jury for review.
Deputies from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office began pursuing the teen after receiving a report at around 4 a.m. of a carjacking of a black Toyota Corolla at a Safeway parking lot in Salem, located at Silverton Road and Lancaster Drive Northeast. The caller reported the teen was armed with a weapon, OSP said.
Deputies located the Corolla and pursued the teen on Highway 18. The pursuit ended on Highway 18 near the Spirit Mountain Casino in Grand Ronde, about 35 miles west of where the car was reported stolen.
As deputies attempted to bring the teen into custody, “shots were fired and the subject died at the scene,” OSP said in a press release. No details about the moments leading up to the shooting were immediately released.
Investigators recovered a weapon from the scene, OSP said.
An investigation is ongoing.
"Right now the investigation is being led by the Oregon State Police, which is appropriate given the circumstance that involves an agency other than them," said Polk County District Attorney Aaron Felton. "Given the potential conflicts involved that’s standard operating procedure. Once they're done, gathered their reports together, they’ll turn them over to me and then the matter will be taken before the Polk County grand jury.”
Some of Escalona-Baez's classmates at Silverton High School remembered him by painting his name on a bench at the school.
