Portland Transit Officer Samuel Ajir quickly retreated when a suspect he had been chasing for about 200 yards suddenly turned around holding a knife.

"Drop the knife! Drop the knife!'' Ajir said he yelled, as he backed up and drew his gun.

Ajir took two to three steps back when his heel suddenly dropped down, having reached a curb he didn't notice.

"Oh (expletive)!'' he recalled thinking. "I have to shoot this guy or he's going to stab me. ... I'm just trying to get my gun on him because he's still coming at me. ... I wanted to shoot to stop him.''

As Ajir fell, he held his 9mm Glock pistol in both hands. He said he knew he had to fire before his body hit the ground, and he squeezed off a single shot, unable to look through the gun's sight. "As I'm falling, I shoot once and I see his hips jar.''

The shot didn't stop the man from advancing, Ajir told grand jurors reviewing the May 10 officer-involved fatal shooting, according to a transcript released Thursday.

The officer landed on his buttocks. He estimated that the man with the knife was now 5 to 6 feet away. Using his left hand to push up, Ajir fired three more shots holding his gun in his right hand, killing Terrell K. Johnson, 24, who collapsed on top of a folding box cutter knife, according to the transcript.

Terrell K. Johnson

Johnson was reported by emergency dispatch to have threatened MAX riders at the Flavel MAX platform in Southeast Portland earlier that evening.

He died of gunshot wounds to his chest. He was struck three times, once in the right side of his chest, once in the right side under his armpit and once in the right buttocks, according to an autopsy. He had marijuana and a slight amount of alcohol in his blood stream, toxicology results showed.

The Multnomah County grand jury last month found no criminal wrongdoing by Ajir in the shooting.

An internal affairs investigation is reviewing whether Ajir's shooting was consistent with bureau policies and training. Internal affairs interviewed Ajir for the first time about the shooting on June 23, more than a month later, after the grand jury did not return an indictment, according to Portland police.

Ajir, an eight-year member of the Portland Police Bureau, worked for the Transit Division for three years and was riding with his brother, a Clackamas County sheriff's deputy, when the two responded to the Southeast Portland call at the MAX platform.

Officer Samuel Ajir's testimony to a Multnomah County grand jury. NOTE: Graphic language in excerpt.

He had little information about what had transpired before he drove up, stepped from his police car and spotted Johnson, who took off running, according to the transcript. A computer dispatch report indicated, "NOW weapons,'' leading Ajir to believe the suspect may have been armed, the officer testified.

Ajir's chase was called in at 7:14 p.m. "Shots fired" was radioed to dispatch 36 seconds later, according to police.

The incident began when a MAX rider, Meredith Rivera, called 911 at 6:58 p.m. She, her stepdaughter and neighbor Jacob Leiker, 17, were talking at the Flavel Street station when Johnson walked up and asked Rivera if she had a cigarette. Rivera, who was smoking, said no.

Leiker told grand jurors that Johnson then started "mean mugging,'' or making nasty faces at them. Leiker had just arrived at the MAX station by train and was on his way home when he stopped to talk to Rivera and her daughter, who were waiting for a train to see a concert at the Moda Center. As Leiker went to walk off, he passed by Johnson. Johnson began to chase Leiker, according to the grand jury records.

Leiker said he believed Johnson had a sharp object in his hand. As he ran from him, Leiker called his father. Once home, Leiker said his first instinct was to grab a kitchen knife, tell his friends and go back to the MAX tracks. He met his dad and confronted Johnson, according to his testimony.

"You got a knife? Why don't you stick me,'' the father, Paul Leiker, said he told Johnson, who stared straight ahead, holding a flip-out box cutter knife down to his side. Johnson looked either scared to death or just out of it, Paul Leiker said. "What's going on? What's happening?'' the elder Leiker continued to ask.

Paul Leiker told Johnson to put his knife away, and he did. The father kept asking Johnson why he'd pulled the knife and run after his son. Johnson finally responded, saying something like, "Well, because he looked at me wrong,'' according to Leiker's testimony.

Paul Leiker, his son and his son's friends left as transit police arrived.

Transit Officer Jacob Howell, who works for West Linn police, was the first officer to contact Johnson on Southeast Flavel Road. Howell told Johnson they had a report he was threatening people at the MAX station, and Johnson denied it. Asked if he had knife, Johnson told the officer he did.

"That's fine. Just don't reach for it,'' Howell said he told Johnson. Howell said he waited for cover officers and asked Johnson to sit on the ground, before putting hands on Johnson. Howell also said he didn't know enough about the threatening complaint because he hadn't spoken to the person who called 911 and the dispatch information was limited.

As Ajir pulled up, Johnson took off running, Howell said. Johnson fit the suspect's description, Ajir said. Based on a computer dispatch note, Ajir suspected the suspect might be armed.

Howell also ran after Johnson but Ajir overtook him.

Howell said when he caught up, he saw Johnson standing with a knife out toward Ajir, but not moving or swinging it. He saw Ajir fire at Johnson. Howell testified that Ajir was standing when he fired at Johnson, and didn't see Ajir fall.

Ajir said he didn't recognize Johnson at the time but learned later that he had helped arrest him two weeks earlier, accusing him of stealing a bicycle. Another man testified to grand jurors that he believes Johnson followed him off a MAX train the night before the chase, also armed with a box cutter at the time.

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian