A Salem man on Nov. 9 pointed a “realistic looking” airsoft pistol at several people in a northeast Salem business district before a Salem police officer shot and injured him, the Marion County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release Thursday evening.
A Marion County grand jury on Wednesday indicted Jonathan M. Martin, 25, on five counts of menacing, court records showed.
The grand jury also unanimously found that Salem Police Department officer Jeremy Mitchell was justified in shooting Martin in the shoulder, according to the news release.
The shooting occurred just before 5 p.m. on Nov. 9 after Mitchell responded to a report of a man pointing a firearm at several people outside of several businesses near the intersection of Northeast Lancaster Drive and Northeast Beverly Avenue.
Salem police said at the time that a witness reported the man was trying to stop cars in the parking lot of a Popeyes restaurant at 2595 Lancaster Drive N.E. An officer found the suspect walking near the intersection of Northeast Coral Avenue and Northeast Wolverine Street.
While the officer was in his car, the suspect pointed something that appeared to be a gun at him, police said.
“Upon contact, there was a brief altercation” that prompted the officer to shoot Martin through the windshield of his marked patrol car, prosecutors said in their statement Thursday.
Martin was struck once in the shoulder. He suffered a non-life threatening injury and was taken to Salem Hospital.
Martin was released from the hospital that night and booked into Marion County Jail on an unrelated warrant for a probation violation stemming from an earlier conviction for attempted first-degree unlawful sexual penetration. He remained in jail as of Thursday evening, the jail’s roster showed.
The officer was not injured.
“After his arrest, it was determined that Martin’s ‘gun’ was a realistic looking air soft pistol,” prosecutors said in the statement.
More court proceedings are scheduled in the menacing case for Jan. 10 in Marion County Circuit Court.
Prosecutors said in the statement that they would release no additional information due to the pending case.
Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053.
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Ardeshir Tabrizian has covered criminal justice and housing for Salem Reporter since September 2021. As an Oregon native, his award-winning watchdog journalism has traversed the state. He has done reporting for The Oregonian, Eugene Weekly and Malheur Enterprise.
