PORTLAND, Ore. — A man died Tuesday night while he was being transported to a medical facility by Milwaukie police officers, law enforcement officials reported Wednesday morning.
The officers — Bradley Walther, who'd worked as an officer for the department for 12 years, and Timothy Cleary, who worked for one year — were removed from administrative leave as of Dec. 22. They have returned to their patrol officer duties, according to the Milwaukie Police Department.
The Milwaukie Police Department added in a press release that the investigation is ongoing.
The man, identified as 26-year-old Jean M. Descamps, had been discharged from a local hospital and was being transported to Unity Center for Behavioral Health when he died shortly after 11 p.m., according to the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) and Milwaukie Police Department (MPD).
Milwaukie police said officers were dispatched to a hospital around 9:45 p.m. because a man was refusing to leave after he'd been discharged from the emergency room. MPD said officers decided Descamps, who had active arrest warrants from Clackamas County and Multnomah County, couldn't care for himself. Believing he was a danger to himself or others and needed mental health treatment, officers took him into custody on a police officer hold and drove him to a mental health facility.
"There is a statute that allows us to put a police officer hold on someone in that situation, and so, the officers put a POH on him and drove him to Unity," explained Sgt. Kevin Allen with the Portland Police Bureau.
When the officers arrived at Unity Center for Behavioral Health in Portland, they noticed Descamps was unresponsive, MPD said. Officers started CPR and called for medical help. Emergency medical personnel arrived and took over CPR, but the man couldn't be revived and was pronounced dead at the scene.
"This is a little bit of a unique circumstance where somebody is already in the hospital and there’s an effort to try to figure out what is the most appropriate place to put this person in," Sgt. Allen said, "So that will be a big part of this investigation: How did that process happen? How did the officers problem-solve the situation? Is there anything that we can learn from the situation?"
Milwaukie police told KGW that "there was no struggle with the man by officers." They said other factors are part of the ongoing investigation and directed KGW to PPB for details about those other factors.
Portland police told KGW the officers in this case wore body worn cameras, so that footage will give investigators a clearer timeline of the events. The footage has not been made public at this time.
Portland police said North Precinct officers responded to the medical center to help and PPB homicide detectives responded to investigate the death. Milwaukie police said the investigation by PPB is standard practice when a person dies while in the custody of law enforcement. Two Milwaukie police officers were placed on administrative leave.
An update Friday from the Portland Police Bureau said that Descamps' death "was likely related to a drug overdose" and contributing natural causes, citing initial findings from the county medical examiner. A final determination awaits the results of a toxicology report.
PPB said Descamps family has been notified of his death.
If anyone has information about this case, please contact PPB Detective Travis Law at travis.law@police.portlandoregon.gov or 503-823-0395 or PPD Detective Ryan Foote at ryan.foote@police.portlandoregon.gov or 503-823-0781. Please refer to Portland police case number 23-320906 or Milwaukie police case number 23-8554.
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