Police Shoot and Kill Suspect That Stabbed a Student to Death
McMINNVILLE, Ore. Dashboard camera footage released shows an officer-involved shooting that followed the deadly stabbing of a Linfield College student last month.
Parker Moore, of Woodinville, Washington, was buying alcohol at a 7-Eleven store near the Linfield campus when a man walked up and started stabbing him, according to a 911 call.
Berry said a friend of Parker's saw the suspect acting "sketchy" outside the store. The friend thought that he saw the man walk into the store and punch Moore several times.
According to the police report, the friend realized after the suspect left the store that Moore had actually been stabbed.
Despite police and paramedics' efforts to save him, Moore was flown to Oregon Health & Science University, where he was pronounced dead.
Surveillance video from inside the store showed the suspect pulling a knife out of his pants and walking toward Moore.
He stabbed Moore several times, Berry said, and then fled on foot before police arrived.
The suspect in the stabbing, later identified as Juventino Bermudez Arenas, 33, returned to the scene later and police shot and killed him. Family members said Arenas told them he was returning to the store to surrender.
But according to Berry, dashboard video from one of the responding officers' patrol cars showed Arenas returning to the scene and acting agitated.
When officers realized it was him, they noticed a knife in his hand and started yelling commands, guns pointed. The dashboard video shows Arenas with both hands in the air approaching the officers.
Berry told that the man shook his hands three times. The third time, he also took a step toward officers, who had repeatedly told him to get down. Berry said three officers fired 15 shots.
Bermudez-Arenas was 10 to 12 feet from officers when he took a step toward them and they fired, the prosecutor said. McMinnville police Sgt. Rhonda Sandoval, Officer Brian McMullen and Officer Justin James will not face charges.
Relatives of Bermudez-Arenas said he spoke Spanish and would not have understood police commands made in English.
It's not known whether a language barrier played a part in the shooting, Berry said. Officers followed their training, and often don't have time to determine the primary language of suspects, he said.
This was a lethal threat," Berry said. "The suspect was within 10 to 12 feet of the officers when he moved toward them."
He added that another officer was loading a Tazer in the parking lot, but did not fire it.
Arenas and Moore had no previous connection and there was no known motive for the murder, Berry said.
"This investigation is basically over," he said. "It appears a totally random act."
Juventino Bermudez-Arenas, suspected of killing a 20-year-old college athlete outside a McMinnville 7-Eleven Saturday, may not have been a lawful US citizen, according to the Yamhill County District Attorney’s Office.
The DA’s Office released information Wednesday suggesting Bermudez-Arenas, shot dead by police after the convenience store murder, had offered varied personal information over the years to law enforcement.
During an arrest on a minor charge in McMinnville in July of 2000, Bermudez-Arenas provided the name “Jonventino Bermudes” with a birth date one month earlier than the 33-year-old was actually born, according to the DA’s Office.
“It is not believed that he was in the United States lawfully based on inconsistent social security numbers given to his employer, lack of official U.S. paperwork, and from information provided by his family,” the DA’s Office said in a release. “Investigators continue to gather further background information on him.”
The DA’s Office also confirmed Bermudez-Arenas had been working at a Christmas tree farm in the Dalles, Ore. It was reportedly his second year on the farm.
Still no connection between Bermudez-Arenas and his purported victim, Parker Moore, has been made.