The Portland police chief who lied about accidentally shooting one of his friends during a hunting trip has been placed on leave after trying to cover up the secret for nearly a month.
Portland mayor Charlie Hales put the city’s top cop on leave on Tuesday as the Oregon Department of Justice and Oregon State Police were both investigating Chief Larry O’Dea for the shooting.
The chief’s dark secret — that O’Dea accidentally shot a friend with a .22 caliber rifle during a vacation trip on April 21 — was revealed Friday.
The mayor learned about it within a week of the shooting, but the world was kept in the dark until the end of May.
“We need our Police Bureau operating at its best, and our officers can’t do that when there’s turmoil and confusion surrounding their leader,” Mayor Hales said in a statement. “Chief O’Dea has been providing excellent service as our police chief, and now needs to focus on these investigations.”
The news comes less than a day after the Harney County Sheriff’s office revealed that O’Dea lied to deputies when they responded to his 911 call on April 21.
O’Dea, who didn’t identify himself as Portland’s police chief, told sheriff’s deputies that his wounded friend shot himself accidentally, the department said.
Sheriff Dave Ward told the Oregonian his department would not help any kind of cover-up for the embattled police chief.
“If he called the mayor and said he had shot his friend, he should have called me as well. I was irritated about that,” Ward told the newspaper. “He should have picked up the phone and called our office and said this is what happened.”
The sheriff’s office said it grew suspicious of the initial report when the victim’s testimony contradicted O’Dea’s account.
O’Dea was on the trip with Portland police department’s former head of firearms training when he accidentally blasted his buddy in the lower back while hunting sage rats.
The victim was airlifted to the closest trauma hospital, where he was treated and released.
“The victim made it pretty clear he didn’t shoot himself,” Ward told reporters. “The victim knew who shot him.”
Assistant Chief Donna Henderson was named the acting police chief while O’Dea is on leave.
It is unclear when the police chief will return, pending the outcome of the internal and external investigations into the shooting and cover-up attempts.
The department said O’Dea would not be able to comment on the case.
