The parents of Brad Lee Morgan, the 21-year-old whom Portland police fatally shot early Wednesday after he pointed a fake gun at them, said they knew their son was troubled.

But they said they never expected his heartache from an on-again, off-again relationship and custody battles over his 8-month-old son to drive him to such a desperate act. Morgan also had been convicted of burglary this month and was on probation.

"This time in his life grew very difficult to handle," his parents, Randy and Shelly Morgan, and younger sister, Rashelley, said in a statement. "It seemed to him that after he got one leg up that both legs got kicked out underneath. If this is true for you or anybody close to you, please ask for help." Morgan had called 9-1-1 at 3:17 a.m. saying he had committed a robbery at knifepoint and was going to jump off a downtown parking garage.

Police checked two garages as a dispatcher stayed on the line with Morgan. When the dispatcher asked whether Morgan had a gun, he said, "Possibly." The dispatcher alerted officers the caller was talking about shooting someone, making "suicide by cop" statements.

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Portland Officer David Scott and Sgt. M. John Holbrook found Morgan atop the nine-story SmartPark garage at Southwest Fourth Avenue and Morrison Street. He had climbed onto an elevator shaft on the building's southwest corner.

At 3:35 a.m., Morgan reportedly told a dispatcher that officers had found him but he wasn't going to go with them, police said.

At 3:47 a.m., officers requested Project Respond mental health crisis workers and four minutes later asked for members of the bureau?s Crisis Negotiation Team.

But before any crisis workers arrived, Scott and Holbrook started talking with Morgan. Around 4:01 a.m., the officer and sergeant fired shots at Morgan when he reached into his pocket and pointed what looked like a handgun at them, police said. The shooting occurred within 15 minutes of the officers' request for crisis negotiators, who had yet to reach the scene, police said.

The Special Emergency Reaction Team was called to check on the man, who had dropped behind a ledge. Officers did not know whether he was wounded or simply "lying in wait," said Sgt. Pete Simpson, a police spokesman.

The tactical unit found Morgan slumped in the northwest corner of the raised elevator shaft. He was dead. He had a black handgun that police later determined was a replica gun. "It's totally unbelievable," Morgan's father said Wednesday night. His parents and sister last saw Morgan about 5 p.m. Tuesday. He was headed to a mutual friend's home to recover clothing from the apartment he once shared with his son's mother.

"He acted like everything was OK. He was smiling," said his sister, Rashelley Morgan, 19.

But he left messages through the night with his son's mother.

Brad Morgan had threat ened suicide in the past, according to court records. But those close to him didn't think he'd carry it out, said Cindy Bartley, his son's maternal grandmother.

Morgan pleaded guilty Jan. 12 to first-degree burglary in the April 29, 2010, break-in of a home on Northeast Thompson Street and was sentenced to three years' probation. The plea came after he faced an indictment accusing him of burglaries in North and Northeast Portland.

On Jan. 17, he was booked into the Justice Center jail and later released. He was accused of trying to prevent his son's mother, who had obtained a restraining order against Morgan last summer, from calling 9-1-1 on Dec. 16. She told him to leave "if his life was so horrible" and told police he tried to take their son.

In her August petition for the restraining order, the 20-yearold woman said that they had a fight because Morgan forgot her birthday and that he "started throwing things at me and around the house while I was pregnant." Once their son was born May 16, she said, Morgan would scream at her when the baby woke him, and she was scared he was going to "flip out on me and my son."

Morgan had "threatened to kill himself and my family and I last night," her petition read. On Aug. 17, while talking with Morgan about when he could visit their son, she said he "started to say he was going to get a gun and shoot my family and run away with the baby. He told me he was standing on an overpass and was thinking about jumping. He said his feet were slipping and the phone went dead. I now fear for my son, my family and my (safety)." On Sept. 16, the woman dismissed the restraining order, saying the couple were able "to get along for our son's needs." Yet she obtained another restraining order Dec. 16.

The order restricted Morgan from possessing guns. Days later, on Dec. 22, Morgan posted this cry for help on his Facebook page: "

iv ben in a nonstop brain battle with myself trying to think of the right thing to do. I cant stop crying and puting myself down im never going to c the top when im this way. i admit i need profeshinal help b4 i hurt myself.''





On Monday, Morgan, accompanied by his mother, went to court requesting a hearing to challenge the restraining order.

Portland homicide detectives are continuing to investigate the shooting. The case will be presented to a Multnomah County grand jury for review. Scott, who joined the Portland Police Bureau 9 years ago, and Holbrook, a 15-year bureau veteran, were placed on paid administrative leave, a routine step as the inquiry proceeds. Both were working Central Precinct night shift.

Mayor Sam Adams, who serves as police commissioner, Chief Mike Reese and two assistant chiefs responded to Wednesday's scene, the first fatal officer-involved shooting since Jan. 2, 2011. It comes as the bureau is under federal investigation for its use of force. "As the Police Bureau does with any investigation," Adams said, "we will look for opportunities to learn from this incident."

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Statement from Brad Lee Morgan's family:

