Portland Man Kills Teenager Allegedly Burglarizing Vehicle

PORTLAND - A Portland man shot and killed a 17-year-old boy early yesterday after spotting two young men rifling through his son's car and neighbors' vehicles.

David Clark died in the driveway of a home in southeastern Portland.

Clark was hit in the abdomen with a single blast from a shotgun, said Duane Bigoni, Multnomah County deputy medical examiner.

Stanley Schatz, 51, was initially held by Portland police homicide detectives. A Multnomah County grand jury will decide if he had a legal right to use deadly force to protect himself. Meanwhile, he will not be jailed, Detective Sgt. Larry Neville said.

Oregon law allows citizens sometimes to use deadly force in cases including:

-- When somebody believes a felony being committed could lead to physical force against them.

-- When someone is burglarizing or attempting to burglarize a home.

-- When someone is about to use deadly force against another person.

Clark did not have a gun or other weapons, but police confiscated car-burglary tools, Neville said. No arrests have been made.

Schatz refused to be interviewed by detectives on the advice of his attorney, but otherwise was friendly and cooperative, Neville said. His relatives also declined to be interviewed, as did those of the dead teenager.

Neighbor Deena Batteen said her husband spoke with Schatz and provided some information.

According to information provided by police and neighbors:

-- About 3:45 a.m., Schatz got up to use the bathroom and heard some noises.

-- He looked out a window and saw some people rifling a neighbor's cars down the street. The prowlers then started to break into his son's car in front of his house.

-- Schatz then grabbed a shotgun, went outside and saw someone in the Batteens' pickup and sport-utility vehicle. A young man ran from the pickup into the Batteens' back yard, where several dogs started barking. The young man then came running back toward the front of the house, and Schatz fired his shotgun at the teenager.

-- A companion of Clark, Ronald Nelson, 16, then drove to Clark's home to say he had been shot. Clark's parents and Nelson then drove back to the shooting scene.

In an interview later, Batteen said she and her husband heard a gunshot and a scream. "We knew there had been a shooting," she said.

She said Schatz "was just protecting the property. . . . He didn't want any of this nonsense."

Batteen said the attempted theft from their cars has left her feeling "violated, as if they had burglarized the inside of the house."

"I'm just very sad that they were two young boys. And why they would be so foolish upsets the heck out of me."