Canby police officers shot and killed a suspect who allegedly opened fire on them Wednesday night near an apartment complex on Sequoia Parkway, according to police. No officers were injured in the exchange of gunfire, which unfolded after officers responded to a report of someone trying to break into an apartment.
Officers arrived at the Sequoia Apartments near 259 Sequoia Parkway at about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday to check on a suspicious person report describing an attempted break-in, according to the Canby Police Department, as reported by OregonLive.com. Police say the suspect produced a firearm and fired at the officers, who returned fire and struck the person. Emergency medical responders pronounced the suspect dead at the scene.
The Canby Police Department has not released the identity of the person who died, and the department has not provided further details about the incident, including the sequence of shots fired or how many officers were involved. That kind of information gap is standard in the early hours after an Oregon officer-involved shooting, since state law and county protocol both restrict what agencies can say before an outside investigation gets underway.
Outside Investigators Take Over Under State Law
Under Oregon Senate Bill 111, enacted in 2007, every county must maintain a deadly physical force response plan that requires an independent interagency investigation and grand jury review whenever an officer uses deadly force, according to the Oregon Legislative Information System. That means the Canby Police Department cannot investigate its own officers' actions in Wednesday's shooting. Instead, the Clackamas County Major Crimes Team is now leading the investigation.
The Major Crimes Team is a multi-agency consortium of state, county and municipal law enforcement agencies that works alongside the Clackamas County District Attorney's Office, which provides 24-hour legal support to investigators at major crime scenes, per the county. The team is regularly called in for homicides, major violent crimes and officer-involved shootings across Clackamas County, and it has taken the lead in similar cases before — in July 2024, detectives from Canby and West Linn police served as lead investigators in a separate officer-involved shooting under the same protocol.
Under Clackamas County's critical incident procedures, officers involved in deadly force incidents are placed on administrative leave while the interagency team gathers body camera video and other evidence for submission to a grand jury. Authorities typically hold off on releasing further public details until that grand jury review is complete, according to the Clackamas County District Attorney's Office.
A Rare Fatal Shooting in One of Oregon's Safest Cities
Canby, a suburban city of roughly 18,134 residents along Oregon Route 99E in northern Clackamas County with a median household income of about $100,989, was named the second-safest city in Oregon in 2024 by SafeWise, per U.S. Census Bureau data. Canby officers also completed specialized de-escalation training known as “The C.A.L.M. Approach” during the 2023–2024 fiscal year, according to the city's fiscal year 2025 budget.
Fatal shootings involving Canby police remain uncommon. In December 2025, a shooting at the Greenbriar Apartments on South Locust Street left a 15-year-old girl dead and led to the arrest of a 17-year-old boy, KGW reported at the time. Hoodline also previously covered a case in which Canby officers used lethal force on a bear cub near a local Burgerville.
The Sequoia Apartments shooting also arrives amid a stretch of high-tension law enforcement encounters across Clackamas County. Less than a week earlier, Clackamas County Sheriff's SWAT deputies arrested a 53-year-old man accused of firing 20 rounds at tree trimmers and shooting at police drones during an 80-minute standoff in unincorporated Oregon City. And in May, a Clackamas County grand jury declined to bring charges against an Oregon State Police trooper and a Clackamas County deputy who fatally shot an armed 19-year-old fleeing suspect in Welches, ruling the use of force was justified.
No further updates on the identities of the suspect or the officers involved are expected until the Major Crimes Team completes its investigation and the case goes before a grand jury, consistent with standard county protocol.
