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Police kill man after standoff Victim reportedly was suicidal and had a gun By MARK FREEMAN CENTRAL POINT -- A 90-minute standoff with a reportedly suicidal man in the Oregon State Police parking lot turned tragic Tuesday night when police shot and killed the man as he fled from officers while possibly holding a gun, authorities said. Three officers fired bullets and two others special beanbags at the man after he stepped out of his pickup truck, resulting in a melee of gunfire. District Attorney Mark Huddleston said he was unsure if the man was armed. But witnesses said the man told police he was armed during 90 minutes while police tried to talk him into surrendering before the 8:53 p.m. shooting. The victim was tentatively identified by police, who refused to release any information about the man. The pickup truck the man was driving had California license plates. He had been alone in the truck. Huddleston also declined Tuesday to reveal which officers fired weapons, how many bullets were fired, and how many bullets struck the man. No one else was injured. Police had Highway 99 cordoned off for several hours Tuesday night around the OSP office at 4500 N. Pacific Highway. But several people witnessed the shooting. One witness, who spoke on the condition that his name not be used, said he saw the man jump out of his pickup and run through the parking lot when police fired. "He came running right at us and they shot him," the witness said. "I feel there was more to the story than what I saw." The man apparently pulled into the Oregon State Police parking lot before 7:30 Tuesday night and somehow told police he was armed and suicidal, authorities said. Police from Medford, Central Point and the Jackson County Sheriff's Department joined OSP troopers at the scene and spent the next 90 minutes trying to talk the man into surrendering. A hostage negotiator conversed regularly with the man, who had his pickup truck idling or moving slowly through the parking lot during the discussions, but refused repeatedly to leave his truck. Huddleston said he was "making statements of committing suicide," but would not elaborate. The man also fumbled along the floorboards of his truck during the discussions. At one point, he tried to drive toward the exit of the OSP parking lot and drove over several spike strips that blew out his tires. He continued to drive, first striking a Medford police car, then a Jackson County sheriff's patrol car. It was then that the man jumped out of his truck and the shooting started, witnesses said. The man's body, dressed in a T-shirt and pants, lay face up on grass near the OSP parking spots a couple of hours following the shooting. The Jackson County Major Assault-Death Investigation Team is investigating the case. More than 20 officers and other witnesses were expected to be interviewed, Huddleston said at the scene. Tuesday's incident was the second shooting involving police officers in the past 10 days. On Dec. 18, Medford police officer Scott Clauson was wounded when a man in a Columbus Avenue duplex fired at him and another officer. They returned fire but did not hit him. Clauson, the first Medford officer shot in 66 years, was treated for a wound to his right femur and released from the hospital Dec. 23. He is recovering at home. The alleged shooter, Moises Sanchez-Llamas, is in jail on two charges of attempted aggravated murder. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA