A Portland police officer fatally shot a man near the Springwater Corridor Trail after he swung a crowbar at officers investigating an assault and attempted robbery Thursday morning, police said.

It was the third officer-involved Portland police shooting this year.

"Our job is to protect ourselves," said police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson. "A man armed with a crowbar that can inflict deadly force on an officer ... you're going to defend your life."



East Precinct officers were called to the area of Southeast 104th Avenue and Foster Street on a report of a robbery at 6:06 am.



Two officers arrived and spoke with a man who said he had been assaulted, but nothing was taken of his, and the suspect fled, last seen on the trail.



The officers located the suspect a short distance away on the trail, just south of Foster Road, and started to talk to him, Simpson said.





"Without provocation, the suspect attacked the officers with a large crowbar," Simpson said.

The two officers started to back up.

One of the officers fell to the ground and the suspect kept coming at them, Simpson said.

"One officer fired, killing the suspect," Simpson said.

He said the officers were in "close proximity" to the man, but neither one was injured.



"They were trying to talk to him and he grabs a crowbar," Simpson said. "The suspect continued to advance towards officers."



The officer who had fallen to the ground had fired his gun.

The two officers who responded work on the East Precinct night shift. Police haven't released the male officers' names. Both have been placed on paid administrative leave while the investigation continues -- a standard practice in such cases.



Police said they don't know if the suspect had been living along the trail, or if the man who was assaulted knew his attacker. An autopsy is scheduled Friday.

Southeast Foster Road was closed to traffic between 101st and 112th avenues, and the Springwater Corridor, closed between 101st and 111th avenues, for hours Thursday.

Homicide detectives, along with the police chief and mayor and a representative of the city's Independent Police Review Division, responded to the scene.

Officer Daryl Turner, president of the Portland Police Association who also came to the scene, said in a statement, "Today's incident is just another example of police officers encountering more violent offenders during routine incidents. The officers involved in this situation acted appropriately in defense of their lives as well as protecting the lives of innocent civilians.''

Greg Sargent Sr., owner of Sargent's Motorsports on Southeast Foster at 102nd, two blocks from Thursday's shooting, said he and other business owners are tired of crime on the nearby Springwater Corridor.

Greg Sargent Sr., who owns Sargent's Motor Sports nearby on Southeast Foster at 102nd Avenue, said he's frustrated by the criminal activity along and near the Springwater Corridor.



Though police haven't said whether the man killed had been a transient or camping near the trail, Sargent said business owners and area residents have noticed more homeless people sleeping along the trail.

He said state transportation officials had kicked out a group of homeless people who used to camp below the Interstate 205 overpass, and they've just moved to the trail.



"We call them the creek dwellers ," he said. "The Springwater Trail is actually a thief's getaway route."

The officer-involved shooting was the second in the area in two days. Milwaukie police on Wednesday fatally shot a man at Southeast 32nd Avenue and Johnson Creek Boulevard after a traffic stop.

It also comes in the wake of Tuesday's deadly shooting at Reynolds High School in Troutdale and a homicide at a home in Northeast Portland.



"It's been an unusually busy week," Simpson said. "The headlines the last three days have been traumatic for everybody."

-- Maxine Bernstein