MULTNOMAH COUNTY, Ore — Three Portland Police officers were justified in shooting and killing PoniaX Kane Calles in 2023, a Multnomah County grand jury determined Thursday. Calles had shot and killed a security guard, Bobby Smallwood, at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center.
Calles, 33, was later killed by police after hitching a ride to Gresham from a homeless man who lives out of his van. That man told KGW he did not know what Calles had just done at the hospital. Police said there was a standoff followed by a confrontation in which three Portland police officers — Justin Thurman, Timothy Hoerauf and Seth Wingfield — fired at Calles, killing him.
Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt announced Thursday that a grand jury returned a not true bill for the fatal shooting, finding the three officers' use of force not criminal under Oregon law.
Calles, formerly known as Reginald Kane Jackson, had three children with Ashley Heil, including a son whom she gave birth to at Legacy Health; she was still in the hospital two days later when Calles shot and killed the hospital security guard, Smallwood. Calles had physically abused Heil and their then-8-year-old daughter, according to court documents, and she filed a restraining order against Calles in April, but the order had been dismissed after she did not appear in court in June.
Heil said Calles had “anger problems” and asked the court to prohibit him from possessing or purchasing any guns, and to have him move out. She said he had two handguns and a rifle.
Court documents also showed that in 2019, another person filed a stalking protective order against Calles, who threw explosives outside their home and pointed a gun at them. This order was dismissed by a judge three months later.
Calles had threatened hospital staff prior to the Legacy Health shooting, where another employee was hit by shrapnel and injured, the hospital said. Legacy Health had announced that it will be increasing security across all of its locations after Smallwood's death.