A lawsuit spawned from a stray bullet that penetrated a Keizer home heads to court for the first time next week.
Judge J. Channing Bennett, a Marion County circuit court judge, will begin hearing arguments regarding a preliminary injunction at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, April 9. If the testimony cannot be completed, the hearing will continue on Wednesday, April 10.
At 10:06 a.m., on June 2, 2018, Keizer police responded to a home in the 1300 block of Raphael Street North. Officer Jeremie Fletcher recovered a bullet, believed to have been fired from a Polk County recreational shooting range, after it penetrated the home exterior wall and stopped only after hitting a granite backsplash.
The home belongs to Keizerites Tom and Sheryl Bauer and the recreational shooting range is on the property of Lance Davis, owner of Northwest Rock, Inc. The Bauers are suing Davis for $2.7 million, but also seeking a permanent halt – through a court-issued injunction – to shooting on his property.
The city of Keizer has joined the request to stop the shooting as an intervenor. As an intervenor in the injunction portion of the lawsuit, the city will not be entitled to monetary awards lawsuit, but it is an act of solidarity with the plaintiffs.
Four men, including members of Davis’ family, were cited for firing the shot that ended up in the Bauers’ home, but the charges were later dropped by the Polk County District Attorney’s Office.
The Bauers, their neighbors and the other residents of west Keizer have spoken out repeatedly asking for some sort of action either by the Keizer City Council or the Polk County Board of Commissioners. Keizer officials have been hamstrung by issues of jurisdiction while pleas to Polk County Commissioners appear to fall on deaf ears.