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Relatives question police actions They insist Cole Smith didn't have to die By Dani Dodge of the Mail Tribune CENTRAL POINT -- Cole Younger Smith's family believes he didn't have to die Tuesday in a hail of gunfire outside Oregon State Police headquarters. A police dispatcher contacted his wife, Jennifer Smith, about a half-hour after the 90-minute standoff with police began. Smith says she told the dispatcher her husband suffered from post traumatic stress disorder and the worst thing they could do was surround him. She said, given the chance, she could talk him out of the truck. She said he didn't have a gun. But after putting Smith on hold for a half-hour, the dispatcher said she'd have to call her back. The phone never rang. At 1 a.m., a chaplain and two officers appeared at Smith's door in Philomath to tell Smith her husband was dead. "If the dispatcher would have listened to me, things would have gone a lot differently," Smith said Thursday. "Why did they hang up on me?" Cole Smith, 25, died Tuesday after being hit with more than a dozen bullets. Ninety minutes earlier, at around 7:30 p.m., he had gone to the Central Point OSP office and called dispatch from the phone outside. He said he was going to kill someone. During the standoff, Smith told police repeatedly he had a 9mm pistol in his pickup. He pointed out individual officers and said he would kill them. He moved his truck slowly back and forth inside a tight circle of officers and patrol cars. Police said negotiations that started out promising deteriorated during the evening. Police said Cole then rammed two police vehicles, and police tossed a "flash-bang," a small grenade-like device intended to divert attention. Cole got out of the truck and charged police with something in his hand. Police opened fire with bullets and non-lethal bean bags. Although police feared the item in Smith's hand was a gun, it later was discovered to be a safety razor in its case. "It seems to me there are clear indications that he intended to commit suicide by officers, but that doesn't mean the officers' conduct was justified," said District Attorney Mark Huddleston. "That's a question for the grand jury." The Jackson County Grand Jury will convene in two or three weeks to review the evidence. Dan Durbin, criminal division lieutenant for southwestern district of the Oregon State Police, said the officers were dealing with an imminent threat when they faced off with Smith. "What law enforcement responded to was a distraught man ... saying he was going to kill someone," Durbin said. "It had nothing to do with the fact the family said he wasn't armed. We had to react to the situation at hand based on the best information." Durbin pointed out that officers did contact mental health counselors and discuss the situation at the beginning of the standoff. They contacted Jennifer Smith because they wanted to get as much information as possible. Police believed Smith was about to hurt them or himself immediately when they tossed the flash bang, Huddleston said. He seemed "totally irrational and out of control" a press release stated. But a video tape shot by KDRV-12 television convinced some family members that police were the ones acting irrationally. It shows Smith ramming a police vehicle after the flash bang was thrown. It shows Smith looking lethargic and despondent -- not threatening in their estimation. "This guy could be talked to," said Smith's uncle, Tony Schrick, 53, of Loomis, Calif. "I don't see mental health there. Why this big push to a quick resolution. "They should have given him space." Cole Smith had had trouble with depression since adolescence, his family said. He's been diagnosed as bipolar, as well as having post traumatic stress disorder from a difficult childhood. He has attempted suicide four times in the past two years, was taking medications, and was having trouble with the holidays, his wife said. His pattern is to go to police when he needs to be hospitalized, family members said. "He was going there to get help, not to kill a police officer," Schrick said. "He didn't want to hurt anyone. He's a gentle giant." He was so gentle he even refused to put worms on the fishing hooks of his two daughters, Jennifer Smith said. But Smith believes being surrounded by officers triggered her husband's post traumatic stress disorder, prompting him to make the threats. "I said, `Do not surround him because that's a trigger,' " Smith said she told the dispatcher. "It relates to his childhood of being trapped and hurt." And although he's incensed that his nephew died in what he sees as a a needless death, Schrick apologized to officers who were threatened by Smith. He just wishes they had handled things better and hopes by coming forward to the media, policies will change so that other mentally ill people aren't killed. "This could have been averted," Schrick said. "Instead, they exacerbated it." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA