Police shoot, kill Bandon man after hours-long standoff outside church
Bandon November 5 2018
Police shot and killed a Bandon man during a four-hour standoff Saturday outside a church in Bandon, in what investigators suspect was a “death by cop” suicide, according to Coos County District Attorney R. Paul Frasier.
Six officers fired on 65-year-old Charles Foster after he fired a shotgun round at police, after making several threats to set off an explosion behind the Faith Baptist Church on Highway 101, Frasier said in a Sunday press release.
The officers involved in Foster’s shooting were from four different departments and have been placed on customary paid leave during an investigation. So far, Frasier said the investigation indicates Foster planned the confrontation to provoke a “death by cop” suicide. Foster was known to local police for a previous suicide attempt where he attempted Oct. 11 to hang himself by jumping off the Coquille River Bridge north of Bandon.
Foster initiated the confrontation with a call to 911 at 11:31 a.m. Saturday. During the call, he told police he had parked near the church with explosives and threatened to set them off.
A Bandon police officer and a Coos County sheriff’s deputy responded to the call and found Foster parked in a small pickup about 100 yards behind the church and spoke with him via cell phone, when again he threatened to set off an explosion and was seen with a shotgun, Frasier said. They called for backup and were assisted by Oregon State Police, the Coquille Police Department and the North Bend Police Department.
An acquaintance of Foster told police that Foster’s truck bed contained a full propane tank inside a plastic trash can and several milk jugs that Foster had claimed contained gasoline, according to Frasier.
Police used a drone over-flight of the truck and confirmed that milk jugs and a plastic trash can were inside the truck bed and proceeded to treat the situation as a real explosion threat, Frasier said. A negotiator from the sheriff’s office engaged Foster with a loudspeaker system for several hours.
More than four hours after the initial 911 call, at about 3:50 p.m., Foster got out of his truck, carrying the shotgun and an unlit flare in his other hand, Frasier said. Foster walked to the back of his truck and appeared to reach for something inside, and then moved to the driver’s side, where police saw him point the shotgun at something in the back of the truck.
At 3:58 p.m., Foster turned the gun in the direction of police officers and fired one round. Six officers returned fire and struck Foster, fatally wounding him. He was declared dead at the scene.
The officers involved in the shooting include two Oregon State Police troopers, two Coos County Sheriff deputies, a Coquille Police officer and a North Bend Police officer, Frasier said.
The Coos Bay Police Department is leading the investigation, with assistance from Douglas County Major Crime Team, the Coquille Tribal Police, the Confederated Tribal Police and the Bandon Police Department.
Foster attempted suicide just last month, during an Oct. 11 incident in which two officers intervened when Foster attempted to hang himself with a rope and jump off the Coquille River Bridge north of Bandon. Afterwards, Foster was taken to a hospital for a mental evaluation and eventually released. Frasier said police received reports after his release that Foster still was contemplating suicide and “suicide by cop.”
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