PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A grand jury says a Portland police officer was justified in fatally shooting a man in a March 12 gun battle. The man was the prime suspect in the January kidnapping of a woman who escaped her attacker by jumping from a moving vehicle.
Police say Officer John Romero shot and killed 49-year-old Kelly Vern Swoboda near Wilson High School. The officer was hit in the hand in return fire from Swoboda.
The Multnomah County grand jury delivered its decision Monday.
Court records show Swoboda was convicted of bank robbery in 1994 and 2006 and sentenced to nearly six years in prison after the second conviction. In March, a federal indictment charged him in the robberies of three Portland-area banks in late 2013. He was also suspected of robbing a Eugene bank in February.
Romero and two other officers had responded to a 9-1-1 call regarding a suspicious green van.
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