Trooper: 2020 Chase ‘Unbelievable’

Hood River County DA Carrie Rasmussen lauded now-retired Oregon State Police Sgt. Kaipo Raiser for his actions that day.

“Here is a person who shot at him in a high-speed chase, and yet when it came time to secure the scene and maintain safety, he just treats the suspect with utmost respect. He’s very kind to him. He offers him water. He’s very calming, he does everything that you would hope a police officer would do under those kinds of circumstances. He really took care of the situation well.”

The events began to unfold mid-morning on May 14, when troopers were told to be on the lookout for a Washington homicide suspect who could be driving one of three possible vehicles, including a small white SUV.

Morris had murdered his father in Ritzville, Wash., and was headed to Vancouver, Wash., to kill his mother, “so it was just a crazy situation,” said Raiser.

Gorge chase

Raiser and OSP Senior Trooper Mark Jubitz were on duty in the Gorge that morning. Jubitz, posted by The Dalles Dam, spotted a white SUV with Washington plates going westbound on I-84. By the time the vehicle was west of Mosier, the troopers had confirmation the vehicle was registered in Ritzville, and Raiser had driven by the car and gotten a look at the driver, who matched the suspect description.

Raiser followed Morris from a distance, so as not to pressure him into turning off into Hood River, while he waited for Jubitz to catch up. Jubitz had been working his way through busy traffic without emergency lights, so he wouldn’t alert the suspect.

With Jubitz closing in, Raiser pulled Morris over around milepost 63, a good spot with high berms on either side in case of gunfire. Past exit 62, there were few good places to stop somebody where there’s a wide shoulder that’s protected, and has good radio reception.

Morris took too long to come to a complete stop, which was a red flag. Raiser motioned the man to get out of his car. Then Jubitz pulled up, and the man took off.

“That’s when the real pursuit began,” Jubitz said.

“He drove crazily between Hood River and Cascade Locks. Passing on the right, passing on the shoulder, passing too close, 130 mph, the whole thing,” Raiser said.

East of Cascade Locks, with Raiser maybe 30-50 yards behind him as they’re driving 120 mph, Morris rolled down his window, stuck out a long gun, and fired toward the eastbound lanes.

Then Morris fired again, directly at the pursuing troopers, by holding the gun flat against his vehicle, pointed backwards. “I called out and I swerved, and Mark swerved,” Raiser said.

Getting shot at “was surreal,” Raiser said. “With the aspect of, ‘Oh my God, he’s shooting at us. He’s trying to kill us.’ You still have to hold on to your faculties. It wasn’t scary. I think I was more concerned about the public because you don’t know where the rounds are going. I definitely was more concerned with the public safety than my own safety.”

Jubitz said the suspect fired several rounds at them. But taking fire, in the moment, “you really don’t think about it. You’re dealing with the situation and you acknowledge it and you try to take actions to minimize the risk.”

By Rooster Rock State Park, Morris stopped another car by slowing to a stop in front of it. Troopers later learned the suspect’s original vehicle, which was stolen, had run out of gas.

Morris got out, pointed his gun directly at Jubitz, then walked to the stopped car.

Raiser had stopped on the shoulder, Jubitz stopped in the middle, blocking traffic. Each fired a single round at Morris as he opened the car door and pointed his rifle at the driver.

Raiser said the driver, an older man from Hood River. “fought back. Probably the only reason he lived.” He believes if the man had ended up a hostage, the situation would’ve ended differently.

Morris told the man to move over. Instead, the man grabbed his gun, telling him, “’I know you can’t shoot me because I know where the barrel of your gun is.’” Raiser recounted.

Even though Morris essentially sat on him, the man managed to get out of the car and tumbled to the interstate.

The troopers directed the man to stand on the shoulder and continued their pursuit.

As the chase headed for Portland, with more officers joining it as it went along, Raiser knew if Morris reached that populated area he’d kill someone, either through reckless driving or gunfire.

Where the grassy median area begins east of Troutdale, another of several spike strips was attempted (one earlier had flattened one tire), and two other troopers with rifles shot at the suspect, because at that point, deadly force was “well authorized,” Raiser said.

Then a Portland-based trooper did a PIT maneuver, using the front side of his patrol car to nudge against the back side of Morris’s vehicle, spinning it out and off the freeway.

Jubitz said troopers frequently practice PIT maneuvers, but typically at lower speeds. This one was at 100 mph-plus.

“It was a thing of beauty,” Raiser said of the PIT maneuver. “It couldn’t have gone any better, he spun out, went into the ditch and he gave up, almost immediately. That would not happen in a movie. I think we were all expecting the movie ending, but it did not materialize.

“We did a felony takedown. There were about a million police officers there,” Raiser said. Officers behind cover issued commands from about 50 feet away. Raiser said, “He complied. ‘Come up the hill. Get down on your knees. Turn away from us. Let us see your hands.’ He complied completely.”

Raiser handcuffed the man and saw he had a bullet hole in his upper middle back. “He was no worse for wear. Very little blood.” He was checked out at the hospital and released the same day. It’s unknown if Raiser or Jubitz fired the shot, since the bullet is still lodged in him.

When he arrested him, Morris was “a little bit mentally manic,” Raiser said. “He was singing to himself, and just making statements, uttering things that I took to be a justification as to why he did what he did.”

Raiser said, “I’ve had a lot of high risk and crazy experiences in my career, but this is one of the ones, it’s almost just unbelievable. And for it to come to such a successful resolution, the suspect is taken in custody alive, he fortunately did not hurt anybody else other than his carjacking victim, and his dad, of course, and the victims that witnessed the crime in Washington. There were people that witnessed it.”

Aftermath

After the chase was over, Jubitz made sure to quickly call his wife before she found out on social media. Raiser’s wife, however, heard about it as it was happening. A part-time evidence technician and retired trooper, Kendra Raiser said she walked into work at The Dalles Police Department to be told “’Your husband is in a pursuit with a homicide suspect and there’s been shots fired’ and I’m like, what?”

She had to wait through unnerving periods of radio silence, where dispatch was checking on the troopers and they were engaging with the suspect and couldn’t respond.

“It’s very surreal,” Kendra said. “It was crazy because it’s been the second time for me because Kaipo’s been in two shootings where I’ve been on the radio. It’s just that awkward silence where you’re just like, I’m pretty confident Kaipo’s going to be ok, but you’re still like, that dead silence. It’s hard, it’s really hard.”

And Kaipo Raiser, who retired Sept. 1 after nearly 28 years with the OSP, said, “It was a hairy situation for sure, and I have to say I’m happily retired and not having to deal with that. Kendra and I made it, we made it through.”