Crying woman held hostage calls 911 — then is found dead, Oregon police say
A woman called 911 in tears saying she was being held hostage in an Oregon apartment, police said.
Then police found her body.
When officers knocked on the door on Sunday, Nov. 21, around 3:37 p.m. to conduct a welfare check, Davonte Donahue, 29, shot at officers through the door multiple times, the Portland Police Bureau said in a news release.
Officers did not shoot back.
Instead, the Special Emergency Reaction Team and the Crisis Negotiation Team tried to communicate with Donahue by phone and through a Long Range Acoustic Device, police said.
The device is used by law enforcement to send messages from long distances. It’s also been used to disperse crowds and protests, and the sound can cause pain to the ears.
No one responded to their calls.
Officers then broke the windows to the apartment, and Donahue began shooting at them, police said.
Once police entered the home with a robot, they saw that the man had barricaded himself in a room.
By 1:12 a.m., police said they arrested Donahue and found the woman who called 911 dead in the apartment.
Police did not release any information about the woman’s identity or her relationship to Donahue. The medical examiner’s office will determine her cause of death before she is identified.
Donahue was taken to a hospital before getting booked into jail. He faces multiple charges, including second-degree murder, five counts of attempted murder and felon in possession of a firearm, online court records show.
His bail was set at $1,255,000.
This story was originally published November 23, 2021 at 5:06 PM with the headline "Crying woman held hostage calls 911 — then is found dead, Oregon police say."
