Hospital Patient Shot Dead By Police Identified

We now know who was shot and killed by Portland Police on Sunday night outside Adventist Medical Center.  He's 50-year-old Merle Hatch.  His mother, who lives in Iowa, tells the Oregonian he was troubled, got into drugs early and was in and out of prison most of his adult life.  She says he lived in Colorado last she knew and isn't sure how he wound up in Portland.  

Hatch was wanted by U.S. Marshals for bank robbery.  His rap sheet shows a life of crime with arrests for homicide, burglary, bank robbery and theft in California, Arizona and Colorado.

The hospital had called for a "Code Silver", meaning there was an armed and combative person.  He reportedly pointed the gun at a security guard.  As officers were trying to contain the large campus, shots were fired in the employee parking lot and the man died.  He was later identified as a patient.

Police say Hatch wouldn't listen to them and was shot by three officers, identified as Sergeant Nathan Voeller, Officer Andrew Hearst, and Officer Royce Curtiss.  They're on paid administrative leave until the outcome of the investigation.

The findings will be referred to the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office to go before a Grand Jury.

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