Portland Officer Killed, 2 Wounded In Drug Bust -- Police Were Investigating For Drugs

PORTLAND - High-powered bullets that ripped through protective vests killed one policewoman and critically wounded another in a drug raid gone bad.

Officer Colleen Waibel, 44, a 6-year Portland Police Bureau veteran, was the first policewoman to die in the line of duty in the city.

Officer Kim Keist, 39, a 15-year veteran, was wounded in the chest and arm and was in serious condition at Legacy Emanuel Hospital today. Sgt. James Hudson, 42, a 20-year veteran, was treated for a gunshot wound to the hand.

Police with body armor and shields surrounded the house during a 2 1/2-hour standoff that began shortly before noon yesterday when five officers - including Waibel, Keist and Hudson - arrived.

"They knocked down the door and they were met by gunfire," said police spokesman Cliff Madison.

Witnesses told The Oregonian the officers knocked on the door and shouted "Portland police" six times before using a concrete stepping stone to bash the door open.

Police declined to release further details, but KGW-TV quoted sources as saying the officers had entered and were proceeding down a hallway when a hail of bullets came through a door or wall.

To end the standoff, police fired tear gas into the house. When the suspect stepped outside, they knocked him down with a beanbag gun. He had stripped off his clothes, apparently because the tear gas had burned him. He was hauled away naked and bleeding on the tailgate of an armored SWAT van.

The man, identified as Steven Douglas Dons, 37, was shot during earlier gunfire and was being treated at Oregon Health Sciences University Hospital for wounds to his chest and abdomen.

Waibel was married to police Sgt. Mike Fortner. She had two sons from a previous marriage.