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David Patton/Democrat-Herald
Medics work on a person injured in a police-involved shooting Friday in the northbound lane of Interstate 5, at Millersburg



By Jennifer MOody
Albany Democrat-Herald
Oregon State Police are investigating an exchange of gunfire on Interstate 5 near Millersburg on Friday that wounded a state trooper and left another man in critical condition.

Northbound lanes were closed for about seven hours after the shooting, which happened at about 12:45 p.m. near the Millersburg exit.
State police spokesman Gregg Hastings said Trooper Russell Decker, 33, and Senior Trooper Huff Meyr, 40, pulled over a small black car occupied by only the driver, a man. The troopers went in prepared for a “high-risk” traffic stop, which means weapons drawn, but Hastings said it wasn’t yet clear why.

That’s when gunfire erupted, but police did not say exactly what happened.

The man police pulled over was shot “multiple times” and was taken from the freeway by a Life Flight helicopter to Good Samaritan Hospital in Corvallis. He was still in critical condition late Friday.

The man was reportedly hit in the leg, groin and abdomen, according to KATU-TV in Portland.

Decker was shot three times, once in the left foot. His protective vest stopped the other two rounds, Hastings said. He was taken to Samaritan Albany General Hospital, where he was treated and released.

KATU reported a witness saw the trooper walking back to his patrol car with some documents when the stopped driver got out and started shooting. The witness saw the trooper fall down hard on the freeway embankment.

Mario Rivera saw the entire incident from the cab of his semi-trailer truck as he approached during the gunfire.

“It was a little nerve-racking,” Rivera told KGW-TV in Portland. “It’s not every day you see somebody shooting at a police officer.”

Decker is a four-and-a-half-year OSP veteran assigned at the Albany office. He transferred from Pendleton about 18 months ago.

Hastings said he did not yet have information on which of the officers had fired, or whether both did.

Senior Trooper Meyr was not injured.

A third trooper, Hastings said, arrived at some point.

Three separate armed robberies or attempted robberies had been reported between 10:45 and 11:05 a.m. at an interstate rest area north of Sutherlin, but “we haven’t made any connection,” Hastings said.

OSP, the Linn County Sheriff’s Office and the Linn County District Attorney’s office were all involved in the investigation of the shooting.

At about 1:30 p.m., officers worked behind yellow crime tape stretched across the northbound lanes of the freeway.

Drivers, who had been stopped for almost an hour, stood watching from behind the tape as police and fire crews worked at the scene.

Medics assisted Trooper Decker, whose hat, shirt and one shoe were on the side of the freeway.

Farther up the road, medics were attending to the wounded driver, who was lying near the driver’s door of a state police patrol car on the east side of the freeway.

In front of the trooper’s patrol car, a black Toyota Corolla with a New Jersey license plate sat with its back window broken or shot out.

Traffic was detoured around on Century Drive.

The Linn County Sheriff’s Office and Albany police and fire departments also responded to the incident.

Traffic also was slowed for several miles in the southbound lanes after a pickup and travel trailer collided north of Jefferson around 2:30 p.m. Injuries were involved but police did not have details.

Reporter Carrie Petersen and the Associated Press contributed to this story.

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