Detectives from outside police agencies examine items at the scene in the Anchor Bank parking lot on Sunday.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The 43-year-old Centralia man shot to death by a police officer following a shoplifting incident has been identified as Paul M. Edmundson, an individual who lived at the Pepper Tree Motel and RV Park.
Edmundson died at the scene on Sunday morning, in a bank parking lot just south of the Chevron service station on the corner of South Tower Avenue and East Cherry Street.
Police say he was combative as Officer Ruben Ramirez and his K-9 partner tried to detain him, and he pulled a handgun from his pocket.
Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod reports Edmundson died of massive internal bleeding from a bullet wound to his chest.
It’s the second time this year a Centralia officer has shot and killed someone. In February, an officer fired eight shots at a 48-year-old Westport man staying at the Lakeview Inn after a night time encounter in a nearby residential neighborhood when the man refused to drop a knife.
That use of deadly force was found by the prosecutor to be justified.
The Centralia Police Department this morning revealed Edmundson was wanted in connection with an assault in which he allegedly shoved some type of sharp object though the eyelid of a neighbor during a disagreement on Friday at the Pepper Tree Motel. Responding officers to the 1200 block of Alder Street didn’t know what the object was and still don’t, according to Officer John Panco.
Panco said Edmundson thought his 50-year-old neighbor owed him a favor because he’d bought him some beer a few days earlier, and he wanted him to drive him around town instead of leaving that day.
The victim’s eye was not permanently damaged, according to Panco.
Panco said he didn’t know if Officer Ramirez knew that’s the man he’d come across when responding to the 10 a.m. call on Sunday about a stolen burrito, but just wanted to get the information out there.
“He was the one who took the report of the assault, so whether he recognized him or not, I do not know,” Panco said. “That will come out in the investigation.”
The details of what preceded the Sunday morning shooting in Anchor Bank’s parking lot are limited, as Centralia police arrived as backup after a struggle ensued between Ramirez and Edmundson but officers instead worked to preserve the scene of the shooting and turned the entire case over to a group of detectives from outside police agencies.
Panco said this morning a 44-year-old woman, Michele Milligan, who was present – and said to be screaming at Ramirez as the two men fought – was taken into custody for a warrant.
A gas station clerk from across the street who called 911 said she watched for what seemed like 10 minutes of the officer trying to handcuff the man.
Nicole Escalante described seeing the man on the ground, and repeatedly trying to get up, and Ramirez telling him to stay down and at one point punching him.
Escalante said she stood on the sidewalk in front of her convenience store talking with 911 and saw the man reach for something, and saw Ramirez draw his weapon and fire one shot.
Ramirez, a 15-year veteran of the police department and a member of its SWAT team, was placed on paid leave. Police Chief Bob Berg says the Region Three Critical Incident Investigation Team is expected to complete its work within the next three weeks.
An internal use-of-force review board will convene after that, according to Berg.
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For background, read “Stolen burrito leads to fatal shooting in Centralia” from Sunday June 29, 2014, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
This has nothing to do with being a cop. I just asked what you personally would do if you were struggling with someone (for whatever reason) who started pulling a gun on you. Would you just give up and let him shoot you to death rather than defend yourself?
GuiltyBystander says: Lurker: What would YOU have done if someone was pulling a gun on you?
I wouldn’t have become a PIG in the first place.
Parasites Invasive to Greater Society, PIGS for short. NSA, CIA, FBI, Local, State and Federal Law Enforcement. All tentacles of the same invasive paranoid government. They seem to have the greatest influence on those whose Moral Objectivity was Removed Or Negated, MORONS for short.
It is befuddling to me how the PIGS got the MORONS to believe that it is OK TO KILL SICK PEOPLE. Americans like to feel that they are better at everything than the rest of the world. How do YOU explain this quandary? Are we better at killing citizens than your average third world nation? I think (too much) that tweakers are an unnecessary burden on society. I don’t believe we have adequately addressed the problem.
Tweakers, PIGS and MORONS. At least the tweakers have the dope to blame for their fucked up behavior!
When my home boy Brian Geen gets elected the dum ass cops are done with there dum ass killin. Hes gonna cleen this stipid house UP!!!! beware dum ass cops cuz Greens gonna git yo ass
You still haven’t answered my question from an earlier thread, Lurker: What would YOU have done if someone was pulling a gun on you? Let him shoot you because he couldn’t help himself?
Go ahead and swear at me, too. That always validates your point.
….not to mention, we need to suspend every citizen’s constitutional rights so that the police can stop you, frisk you, and make sure you are an otherwise upstanding citizen so that nobody gets hurt or buys illegal drugs.
I know, all the bleeding heart liberals will come out against that idea, but what are they afraid of?
If you have nothing to hide, then you shouldn’t have a problem with being stopped by the police and searched, even if you’re on your own private property.
If an officer wants to search your person, your property, or your home without a warrant, then that’s what needs to be done! If you can’t allow a police search of your car, your bodidly cavities, your house, backpack, purse, etc. then you OBVIOUSLY have something to hide and you deserve whatever punishment the police mete out to you for not respecting their authority.
If you don’t bow down, roll over, and pee on yourself whenever a police officer asks you to lick thier boots, then your probably deserve whatever you get. How many times were you stopped before that? It’s not like the police just stop people randomly!
I’m sick of the cop-bashing that goes on at this site. Cops need the support they deserve, and they deserve the suspension of your constitutional rights so they can DO THEIR JOBS!!!!
It’s not rocket science.
Law Enforcement needs over time:
We need dope dogs to help in the war on drugs and to fight crime. They were expensive and they got them.
We need S.W.A.T. Teams in A.P.C.s to help in the war on drugs and to fight crime. Their requests were again granted.
We need mobile Incident Command Centers to help in the war on drugs and to fight crime. They got those too and our last one was free right? Nothing is free.
When is Lewis County going to procure its grenade launcher? As if ANY law enforcement group should have a grenade launcher.
Flack jackets, luxury vehicles loaded with antennas (6 antennas can’t be good for personal privacy), tons of fairly sophisticated shit to help in the war on drugs and to fight crime.
Considering their resounding success, we should continue to agree to all of law enforcements requests. It has been cheap too ROFLMFAO!
Someone once defined insanity as doing the same thing expecting different results.
Law enforcement complains that we have to get those pesky warrants, and we can’t just indiscriminately shoot people. We have to have reasons to shoot them.
If only a few cops are bad or dirty, why don’t the good cops arrest them?
Who would pull a gun on a cop in between bites from a cops dog… Only a crazy man…
Who would bring a knife to a gun fight with a cop… Only a crazy man…
Who would charge a policeman unarmed… Only a crazy man.
Its a long list.
They have a choice… Lot of dead bodies saying you are full of shit…
They have a choice… Our prison population sez you are full of shit…
They have a choice… Look at the way they willingly live their lives, then try to convince me that you aren’t full of shit.
One of you upstanding disgusting citizens needs to put to print that IT IS OK TO KILL SICK PEOPLE. You are a disgusting folks, do you know that? What the Fuck would Adolph do? You just answered the question!
Hey… the “victim” in this case is the police officer, not the POS that pulled a gun on him. He would be the “suspect” or more appropriately in this case “the deceased.”
The officer, as far as I can tell was the victim of and attempted murder or at least an assault. Keep in mind an assault includes any unwanted / unlawful touching.
Reading some of the nonsense written here (asap in particular) only confirms what I’ve feared all along… we are in a downward spiral as a society. First, get over the freaking burrito, OK? This wasn’t about a burrito it was about a career criminal. Edmundson was just that. If you check the booking logs for any of the county jails in the area, you may find that he was booked into the Multnomah county jail back in May for a bunch of crap, including auto theft. What kind of guy tries to stab some one in the eye because he feels the person owes him for beer. What kind of guy goes around calling himself Robin Hood? It’s true, a guy who knew him came into our store and told us he had all of the transients in town scared sh*tless. He was threatening and intimidating them and bragged about having a gun (which I’m sure will turn out to be stolen).
If you had a negative encounter with the police, I’m sorry. It happens. I retired as a cop 5 years ago and I’ve had a couple of less than pleasant encounters with officers myself. But, ask yourself… If you keep getting stopped by the police because you are “in the wrong place at the wrong time” you should catch a clue… because that isn’t normal unless you are in fact a knucklehead. Just saying’
My prayers and thoughts are for Officer Ramirez and his family, I hope everyone is doing well. I think that K9 deserves a big ole’ rib eye steak, uncooked of course.
chief of police in a small town.I’m not illiterate I just don’t proof read before I send and I use talk and spell a lot which f#@ks up all the time so bare with me I’m just learning how to use this shit I am old school pencil and paper.. and if it gives you a headache reading this good that means your brain is working..I was told a long time ago by my grandfather that if you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything and some of you people fit the fall for anything category ..have a great fourth of July. don’t blow your fingers off ..may God be with you all!!!!!!!
it is also my opinion if the cop wasn’t so fat..or overweight. he might have caught that suspect.!! that would be the 1 who ran away in the hallway my first incounter with them?????
the first time this happened to me I was 18 years oldhave been visiting my mom at her apartment.had just left when a police officer came around the corner chasing a suspect..the suspect ran down the hall and turned a corner.police officer came from the opposite direction around a corner I was the only person in the hallway .he pointed his gun at me and told me to stop right there my mother hearing the commotion in the hallway came out explain to the officer that I was visiting her I would not want he was after!!!!!!the second time happened when I was cruising through as a passenger in a park in which gunshots were fired from a vehicle earlier in the day we were pulling on to the highway when two police cars sheriff’s blocked way out made us back up jumped out and pointed shotguns at us for being in the wrong colored carthe car they were looking for was a green javelin we were in a Mustang..the third time was basically the same police looking for someone in a vehicle that matched our description that time it was a different state Oregon so you could never tell me that the cops don’t make f#@king mistakes all cops are not bad but I have met a few that would f#@king rob you blind . I have an uncle who worked as a detective for the Seattle Police Department and the Tacoma Police Department and this is what he told my father if you have to shoot someone who’s intruding in your house drag her ass back inside so you’re not in any trouble I also have a son in law who was a cheaper please of a small town .so I don’t hate cops I just don’t f#@king trust em.. so you could never convince me that the cops are all perfect and that’s my opinion like it or f#@king not..so now you know the story it happens
It was most likely another finger gun. As has been proven in the past, according to the Centralia P.D., finger guns are just as dangerous, if not more so, than real guns and they are willing to do whatever they have to do to stay alive.
If someone was about to pull a finger gun out of their pocket and proceed to shoot you, what would you do?
I’m sick of all this cop-bashing that’s going on.
If you pull a finger gun during a gun fight, prepare to meet your maker.
Its weird usually they tell you what kind of gun it was, like ” the perpatrator pulled a 38 calliber handgun from his coat pocket “. It would totally suck to be a drug addict or a cop.
wow asap three times having police point guns at him for being in the wrong place at the wrong time? You never did anything wrong in all three times? Now who is not providing all of the story?
The deceased, being wanted for an earlier alleged felony assault, is why he was – in all likely hood – being put under arrest.
A report made of a case of simple third degree theft – the burrito – would be a misdemeanor. Someone cannot be put under arrest for a non-felony in this state unless a police officer witnesses the act.
That’s how it reads in the R.C.W.
@ASAP–PULL A GUN ON A COP AND WATCH WHAT HAPPENS,,WE WILL BE READING ABOUT UR DEATH,,UR A MORON
ASAP is obviously trolling and trying to mock this cop hating site. Just trying to stir up controversy to sell advertisement maybe? Nobody can be that stupid. Free Air…why must you comment on EVERYTHING like you’re the freaking expert. Get over yourself.
ASAP….. ARE YOU F**KING KIDDING ME YOU SHOULD READ IT AGAIN. THE STORE OWNER WATCHED FOR WHAT FELT LIKE 10MIN OF THE OFFICER TRYING TO DETAIN HIM. YES IT MAY BE OVER A BURRITO BUT THE GUY COULD HAVE JUST LET HIM TAKE HIM TO JAIL HE WOULD HAVE HAD THREE MEALS A DAY, WARM BED AN SHOWER. IF HE WAS SO HUNGRY WHY NOT JUST ASK FOR IT.
Try reading it again.
l what I got out of the story I just read . Is that a police officer stopped a man.. not even knowing if he was the right suspect. Then allowed the dog to attack the man. This man must have felt the need to protect himself against attacking dog. i would have broken the dog’s neck . Because if I am being attacked unjustly I will defend myself also… It is what they call a terry stop . Did the police officer even look at surveillance tapes befor attempting to find a suspect. Or did he just stopped and questioned the first person he seen and did he even have a burrito or burrito breath… We’ll never know what the dead man’s story is . And once again I asked did his tezar .. not have any juice… we will not know exactly what went down and I know that we probably will never get the real story.. unless there is surveillance tape of the incident.. One thing I do know is if the law is allowed to continue its method of operation the people will continued to be shot four being at the wrong place at the wrong time !!!!!! You would know exactly what I’m talking about if you have had a policeman pointing a gun at you .. When you have done nothing wrong this has happened to me three times in my life.. I can not be sympathetic with the cops on this matter as I’ve had the same thing happened to me just for being there at the wrong time…