A Clackamas County jail sergeant who also worked as the Sheriff’s Office gun instructor fired his 9mm pistol at home, piercing the window and walls of a neighbor’s house, and then repeatedly lied to police during a criminal investigation of the shooting.

Chris Keyser, 48, retired June 1 before he could be fired, state records show -- six months after the bullet flew through his Oregon City block and narrowly missed hitting several children.

The Oregonian/OregonLive obtained the police records and video footage this week through a public records request.

The incident occurred on New Year’s Day on a street called Pavilion Place. Resident Jeremy Johnson was sitting on the couch when he heard a noise “that sounded like a picture had fallen off the wall,” according to an Oregon City police report. Johnson’s wife and two children were in the house.

Johnson went to see what happened and saw a hole in his front window and in the walls. In an interview, Johnson said his 12-year-old daughter had just moments earlier walked through the area where the bullet traveled.

“It would have hit her in the head,” said Johnson, who works as vice president of a pet food bank in Oregon City.

The gunfire panicked his neighbors and terrified his family, he said.

Video surveillance from another neighbor’s home shows kids playing in the area of the bullet’s path moments before the shot rang out. One man was outside with his toddler, Oregon City Officer Tracy Weiland noted in his report.

Weiland quickly determined the shot came from the direction of Keyser’s home and went to talk to the jail sergeant.

“I told Chris if there was any accident in which he may have fired a gun from his house, it would be a good idea to be honest and tell me about it,” Weiland wrote in his report.

Keyser said he had nothing to do with the gunshot and he had not heard gunfire, the report noted. He led police to the locked safe in his garage where he stored his guns.

Keyser’s wife, Megan, told police she was painting when she heard a loud bang in the garage, which she thought was “strange because Chris was in the garage cleaning his guns. She said she almost went to check and make sure Chris was okay.”

An hour later, Weiland’s report said Keyser “admitted finally” that he had unintentionally fired a single shot from his weapon while cleaning it.

At one point during the investigation, another Oregon City police investigator saw a large garbage container sitting in the front of an exterior wall of Keyser’s garage and peered behind it. He reported spotting a bullet hole in the wall.

Keyser, according to police reports, subsequently admitted that he had moved the can to conceal the damage.

“He told me he panicked and didn’t want us to see the hole,” Weiland wrote. “Keyser said he was ashamed and embarrassed about the incident.”

In that same interview, Keyser told the officer that he had “a couple of beers and ciders” the day the gun went off.

“Chris asked if I was going to document how he lied about the incident,” Weiland wrote. “I told him I had to.”

Police determined that the bullet had traveled from an area near Keyser’s gun safe, struck the left arm of a “Halloween mannequin” in the garage, passed through his garage wall and then sailed across the street into the Johnson home.

Keyser in a text message on Thursday said “this whole episode was caused by" post-traumatic stress disorder related to his military service. Johnson said Keyser and his family moved to Montana after the shooting.

Oregon City police forwarded the case to the Clackamas County District Attorney’s Office for review. The office declined to prosecute. A memo prepared by Senior Deputy District Attorney Bryan Brock said the crimes of reckless endangerment and criminal mischief require proof of a “reckless mental state” and an awareness that “his conduct carried with it substantial risk of harm.”

He said the lack of injuries was a factor in the decision not to prosecute.

Ultimately, Brock wrote, it was unclear what led to the discharge of Keyser’s weapon because Keyser’s repeated lies damaged his credibility.

Brock’s memo said Keyser lied to officers a half-dozen times as they tried to piece together what happened.

“I cannot rely on his statement of what happened without any corroborating evidence,” he wrote.

The Sheriff’s Office promptly reported Keyser’s retirement to the state Department of Public Safety Standards and Training. Keyser had been with the agency since 1998. His salary was $95,392.

According to state records, Chief Deputy Jenna Morrison said the Sheriff’s Office told Keyser it planned to fire him for making false statements. Keyser retired before termination proceedings began, the form said.

“We are disappointed by Keyser’s lack of cooperation with the Oregon City Police and his failure to be truthful,” said Sheriff’s Office Detective Sgt. Dan Kraus on Thursday. “Truthfulness is a core principle of the Sheriff’s Office. As stewards of the public trust, all our employees must rigorously adhere to this principle.”

-- Noelle Crombie

503-276-7184

ncrombie@oregonian.com

@noellecrombie