Far out there: Oregon man trips on mushrooms, shoots cop’s gun

BEAVERTON, Oregon — A man who was high on mushrooms entered an Oregon city hall, struggled with officers, grabbed and fired a sergeant’s gun, and broke a pair of handcuffs before he was finally subdued by nine officers, police said.

Police in Beaverton, Ore., say they used a stun gun seven times, but it had no effect on 18-year-old Jared Steven Leone, who had been living in Seattle.

Leone was high on drugs and hallucinating when he entered City Hall’s police records division and started running in circles at about 5:55 p.m. Friday, officials said.

Leone told a clerk he had overdosed on mushrooms, according to police.

Detective Sgt. Jim Shumway said when officers approached Leone he “takes a swing” at one of them.

Surveillance video shows Leone initially struggling with three officers when he allegedly grabbed Sgt. Robert Davis’ gun and fired. No one was hit by the bullet, which hit a wall.

The video shows other officers arriving to try to subdue Leone. Ultimately, it took nine officers to restrain him. Davis suffered a shoulder injury.

“During the struggle he was tased seven times, and it didn’t have any effect on him,” said Shumway, the Beaverton police spokesman.

Leone broke a pair of metal handcuffs, bending a part of them and shearing off teeth that held them closed.

Shumway described Leone as 6-foot-1, 180 pounds and a recent Oregon high school graduate. He said police believe his behavior was an example of “excited delirium,” a condition sometimes seen in drug users marked by a high threshold for pain and abnormal strength.

Leone was arraigned Monday on several charges, including assaulting an officer and unlawful use of a weapon. It wasn’t immediately known if he had a lawyer.

“This could have been tragic, for sure,” Shumway said.