April 17, 2023 Reserve Nyssa Police Officer Joseph Johnson was pursuing a man accused of damaging property and threatening people when the suspect opened fire while both were stopped at an intersection.
By Austin De Dios Source oregonlive.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
A reserve police officer from Nyssa was shot and killed Saturday evening in the eastern Oregon city, and police are still searching Sunday for the suspect.
Officer Joseph Johnson, 43, died after responding to reports of a violent person damaging property and threatening people, the Malheur County District Attorney’s office wrote in a statement Sunday.
Johnson responded to the call around 8:20 p.m., and heard that the suspect had left in a car. Johnson pursued the man, and eventually both cars stopped at the corner of Locust Avenue and North 3rd Street.
As soon as Johnson stopped, the man, identified as 36-year-old Nyssa resident Rene Castro, started shooting at him, the statement from the DA’s office said. The shooter then fled the scene.
Emergency medical workers and the Malheur sheriff’s office responded, but Johnson was dead when they arrived, the DA’s office said. He had served as a reserve officer in Nyssa since 2018 and worked as a behavioral health specialist at Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario, the Malheur Enterprise reported.
Oregon State Police troopers are leading the investigation.
“The appreciation, love, and concern of all citizens of Malheur County go out to the family of Officer Johnson,” the DA’s office said in a statement. “The Fallen Badge Foundation is accepting donations on behalf of the family.”
Nyssa has a population of just under 3,200 people, according to census data. It is about 51 miles from Boise, Idaho.
Investigators ask anyone with information on the location of Castro to call Malheur County Dispatch at 541-473-5125.