Vancouver Mall shooting victim was son of unarmed man killed by police

The 26-year-old man killed in the shooting at the Vancouver Mall on Halloween was the son of a man shot to death by Portland police two decades earlier.

James Perez Jr. was 6 years old when his father, James Jahar Perez, was killed in his car by a Portland police officer in March 2004. Officer Jason Sery fired at Perez three times after his partner had grabbed Perez’s arm and tried to remove him from the front seat of a four-door car in North Portland. Perez, 28, was unarmed.

The Police Bureau at the time said officers pulled over James Jahar Perez’s car because he didn’t use his turn signal within 100 feet of making a turn. According to police, he refused to show identification or step out of his car when instructed to do so. One officer attempted to take him into custody, and during the ensuing struggle, Sery fired at Perez.

Twenty-four seconds passed between the time an officer radioed the traffic stop and a call of shots fired.

The fatal police shooting spurred protests and allegations of police racism, leading to a public inquest, a rarely used proceeding aimed to publicly review the facts of a death.

A month after the shooting, a grand jury cleared Sery of criminal wrongdoing. During the inquest, Sery testified that he believed Perez had a gun. The six-member inquest jury concluded that Sery killed Perez with a gunshot to the heart. Sery left the Police Bureau in August that year, three months after the inquest.

Then-Portland Police Chief Derrick Foxworth found the former officer’s actions in the shooting fell within policy.

In 2008, four years after the shooting, the city approved a $350,000 payout to settle a lawsuit brought by the Perez family.

The younger Perez was shot and killed in the Vancouver Mall’s food court as hundreds of people attended a trick-or-treating event at the shopping center. Travis L. Ward is accused of donning a “Joker” mask, following the 26-year-old and shooting him in the back of the head at “point-blank range,” according to court records. Ward then allegedly fired several more times at Perez, wounding two other men in the process.

Vancouver Police arrested Ward two days after the shooting, and he is accused of first-degree murder and two counts of first-degree assault. A judge ruled to hold him without bail.

Police have described the shooting on the evening of Halloween as a “targeted attack” but did not describe the nature of the relationship between Ward and Perez. After Ward’s arrest, police interviewed him, and court records said he would not “admit or offer any explanation as to why he had shot and killed Perez.”

On social media, James Perez’s aunt, Samaiyah, James Jahar Perez’s sister, asked people to send prayers to her family.

“Rest easy nephew!!” she wrote. “Kiss my bro for me.”