Man killed in police shooting in east Medford
Jul. 7—A man believed to have broken into an east Medford clinic was shot dead Wednesday by police.
Jerry Allan Gunter, 34, died before dawn Wednesday after being shot by police at the Allergy and Asthma Center, 3860 Crater Lake Ave., according to a press release issued by Medford police.
Medford police dispatched two officers to the clinic after the business alarm went off at 2:44 a.m. Two officers found a broken window at 2:47 a.m. and other evidence of forced entry, and heard a suspect inside.
Gunter reportedly told police that he was armed with a knife.
Backup units from Medford police and the Jackson County Sheriff's Office surrounded the building.
At 3:05 a.m., Gunther "suddenly exited the building and aggressively approached officers with the knife," Medford police said in the release.
Two Medford officers fired at Gunter. Neither officer was injured.
"The shooting occurred at a close distance," the release stated.
The officers were put on paid administrative leave until a grand jury determines whether the shooting was justified, police said.
The incident was captured on officers' body cameras. The footage will be released once Oregon State Police completes an investigation, and after the Jackson County District Attorney's Office presents the findings to a grand jury.
Medford police Lt. Mike Budreau said it will likely be weeks before the investigation report makes its way to a grand jury.
"It's going to be several detectives working full-time, if not including overtime, to get the scene processed, to get all the evidence examined, which includes body-worn cameras, any surveillance cameras, and then obviously witness statements, witness officers, involved officers," he said. "Then OSP is going to conduct a scene assessment that will involve forensics and trajectories and documenting the distance — where the officer was compared to the suspect. .... All that stuff takes time. And then that has to be documented in a report form, and once the district attorney has that they will present that to a grand jury."
Gunter was on probation for a 2021 felony methamphetamine possession conviction out of Josephine County Circuit Court, records showed.
Gunter's most recent criminal conviction was last month, when he pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal mischief for damaging a window June 3 at Grants Pass City Hall by throwing a plastic bag containing a rock through a double-pane window in an incident that was captured on surveillance cameras. The vandalism did about $500 worth of damage.
