“Enclosed is an excerpt I helped my friend type up about his son. Please help where you can to blast it, post it on the blog, distribute it any way you can! This story breaks my heart.”
Not News Worthy
PPB Case 22-164825
I’m standing here waiting, screaming, pounding my chest, and stomping my feet ensuring that I’m seen and heard. I can’t even pretend like, I understand. I would have never contemplated, or believed that public officials could play a part in hindering my ability to grieve the death of my son.
I’m absolutely under no false perception, if I was to hear this story, my initial thoughts would be that this is so farfetched. Somebody should be ashamed for even being able to devise such a horrific narrative, alas; I wish it was that simple. I wish all the pain and heartache that has been a constant nightmare on my life these past few months, was actually some twisted author’s fictional creation.
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My reality is not that fortunate. I’m being bombarded every second, every moment, without a single sense of hope or mercy. I talked to my son, McKeever W. Thompson III, on June 19, 2022, on Father’s Day. He was really making a day of it. Him and my nephew, Devin Rose, had their sons making their rounds, eating food and taking pictures and spending time with family and friends.
June 20, 2022, early morning, a woman called him, requesting that he come to her location. After being lured to this secluded area, he pulled his Audi truck into a driveway; at that point, he was ambushed. Gunfire burst out in the direction of my son. Unsure if he was struck inside or outside of the car, in a panic, he jump out the truck, seeking refuge, attempting to escape and outmaneuver the assailants.
McKeever jumped out the vehicle blocking the driveway, leaving the driver door ajar, dropping his cell phone, and running a few feet before collapsing in a small grassy garden area.
The shots fired call came in to the dispatchers at or around 1:15am. It is further uncertain if the Portland Police Bureau deemed a shooting/shot fired call significant enough to warrant their attention.
At or around 3:00am, a concerned neighbor called about a running car blocking the driveway of the apartment. The magnitude of an idling car, is assuredly greater than a shooting, because it was this call that prompted them to action.
Upon the police arriving to the scene, it is clear even to a layman understanding that something is wrong. We have a car running, driver door wide open, and bullet holes in the door, or wherever else it was hit. There’s a cell phone discarded on the ground.
Detective [Rico] Beniga is a trained professional police officer who arrived on the scene and had additional knowledge that a shots fired call was put out from this exact address earlier that morning. Even with that knowledge, he supposedly continued to treat this call as an abandoned car issue. He calls a tow truck and disturbs the crime scene by removing crucial evidence, hence truck and cell phone.
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I truly want to stay away from what I may believe, or what my theory may be. I do want to make clear, with all these signs, layman vs. professional, this scenario is without question, very alarming. At this crime scene, there’s bullet holes, shell casings, a new Audi SUV idling, music blaring, door ajar, cell phone on the ground, and the SUV is blocking a driveway.
When you come across this scene, the natural response you would think is to be concerned, “where is this person at?” My son was right there. If you run the tags to this car, which I’m sure the police did (well, I can’t say that — he hasn’t followed a single procedure at any point of this scenario), but if you run the tags, the registration would come back as Cali Brown, a 20-something year old white girl. I’m having trouble believing that his concern level wouldn’t be peaked knowing it may be a girl connected to this crime scene, or potential danger. To me, it seems like Detective Beniga didn’t follow a single procedure correctly.
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McKeever really doesn’t deviate from his plans. Him not coming home doesn’t make sense. The entire family is on high alert. His mother-in-law [Tamra] pings his phone and discovers his phone location is pinging at the NE precinct. She calls the precinct and questioned if McKeever was in custody? When she was informed that he was not in their custody, she further questioned why his phone was pinging at their facility? Sombody then explained to her that a shooting was called in and later a car blocking a driveway call came in, and when they arrived to that location they found a cell phone on the ground, and a SUV blocking the driveway running with the door wide open.
Tamra then asked, well if his phone is there, where is McKeever? He said he didn’t see anybody, we just towed the car and kept the phone.
Tamra, untrained but simply uses common sense, asked in frustration, where did you tow this car from? After being told, Tamra then drives to where the car was towed from. Disregarding any potential danger, knowing there was a shooting only a few hour earlier that appears to be the cause for McKeever leaving his car and dropping his phone — anybody that knew McKeever understood that for him to drop his phone and leave it, had to be a very traumatic event. He loved and lived by his phone. With that knowledge, Tamra knew he wouldn’t be far, she just hoped he was hiding, scared to come out, or maybe even hurt and couldn’t come out.
Tamra got out of her car, calling his name and praying and hoping a familiar voice would bring him out or at least allow him to call out for help as she walked by searching. All the hope was lost as she came to the patch of grass and seeing McKeever’s lifeless body just lying there. A neighbor called the police, she laid down with McKeever until the police arrived.
Tamra made her calls making sure McKeever’s mother, Monique, is aware and can come to the scene. This is around 1:30pm. All the family starts showing up. The detectives came to the scene and pulled Tamra to the side, and asked her how did she know that it was McKeever. She explained, McKeever is the father of her grandbaby and she helped raise McKeever since he was a child. An eerie thought, before the detective even made it to where McKeever’s body was laying, he leaned into Tamra and said that he knew it was McKeever as well. Then he went to where McKeever was laying, leaving the lingering question: how did he know? If this was the first time he’s been to the scene? He later stated that where McKeever was shot he would not have survived more than five minutes anyway.
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First of all, he’s not a doctor. The family is looking for answers, not assumptions, nor excuses. They failed to protect and serve and not respond to an active shooting scene, to render aid. We find it unethical and utterly insensitive for a public official/detective to attempt to disregard their duties, yet try to convince the family that he wouldn’t have lived long anyway because of where he was shot… McKeever is my child and if he thought his unempathetic excuses would suffice this family, he is clearly in error. My son will not be forgotten. My son, McKeever W. Thompson III, is on my mind every second of the day. This detective has decided to hinder and block the family access from information pertaining to the death of my son. The audacity of him! But I will not be stopped. I’ve been seeking answers from the moment my child was murdered. Flabbergasted, astonished, and quite exhausted. This has been the most emotional, challenging and mental anguish that I’ve ever had to endure. Yet torment is not enough. They want more. I’ve never in my life imagined that anybody could prevent a parent from obtaining information on how his or her child passed away.
Are we, “the family”, just supposed to take the word of this detective who is interfering and impeding our knowledge, and colluding with other state officials/social media?
The family has asked for the autopsy and the coroner’s report. Even after jumping through their hoops, the detective blocked us access proclaiming these reports are evidence of an unsolved murder case. How convenient for him to try to stand on this ground when these reports will play a minimal role to somebody’s criminal conviction. By Detective Beniga allowing a shot up care and cell phone to be removed from a crime scene, can and will affect the outcome of a criminal conviction. He didn’t follow procedures of a police officer/detective when he didn’t show up to a shots fired call. He didn’t follow procedures when he tainted a crime scene by removing evidence. He didn’t follow procedures when he approached the abandoned vehicle and seen the many signs of a crime was committed here. Even from a laymen perspective, if there’s a fancy, expensive Audi SUV just running with the driver’s door wide open and there’s bullet holes in it, a cell phone on the ground, and the detective admitted knowledge of shots being fired from this exact location earlier.
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I believe that if Detective Beniga would’ve treated his first encounter at the scene of the abandoned SUV with bullet holes in it and a cell phone on the ground near the SUV, he should’ve followed proper protocol and taped off the crime scene to do a thorough investigation by searching the area for the driver of the SUV.
My son had been lying there for over 13 hours. As I said previously, it took an untrained woman, Tamra, to locate my son in a patch of grass just lying there. This was around 1:45-2:00pm. At the scene, my wife, McKeever’s other mother [Myell Thompson] was on the phone with the coroner. My wife was asking the coroner, “please could she just go and pick our son off the ground.” The coroner is saying she hasn’t gotten the call yet. My wife was crying, begging her and finally the call came in. She informed my wife that she would be leaving now and she was sorry for our loss. She went out to the scene and did her job.
Monique Hall is McKeever’s mother. She identified McKeever and gave a picture to the news station. Her attempts to allow our son to be humanized in the public eye, that his photo might be published. The next morning, news media outright refused — their actions dehumanized McKeever. The media and Portland Police Bureau continued to speak this false narrative, “Black man found dead”. He was identified June 20, 2022 and given a picture. Around the same time, a white man was shot in a drive-by in West Salem. His girlfriend was able to get a news segment for multiple days, showing his accomplishments and all these great accolades. How good of a father he was. I feel for the family, but it’s a slap in the face when my child is still being portrayed as a John Doe, Black Man found dead for months.
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McKeever was a beautiful boy. He took first in state running track for the state of Oregon. He went to Nationals and took 5th place. He was an adoring father. He loved his son dearly, spoiled him and spent as much time with him as he could. There is so much that could be said, but because we are unrepresented and marginalized, we will continue to be just that, a Black Man found dead. My son passed away June 20, 2022. In November, it must have been an afterthought or the many complaints, all of a sudden he was finally identified by the media. Was it not apparent how loved McKeever was? Tamara went into unknown circumstances to find him. Myell Thompson was on the phone with the coroner pleading for her just to go get him off the ground. He was very much loved. He will be missed. He’ll never be forgotten.
In truth, I’m grasping at straws. I don’t know what I’m doing. I just know from their actions, they don’t want the story told and they’ve done everything to try and cover this up. I know there’s more to the story. I was able to uncover this. I can only imagine what will be discovered from a full investigation.
I don’t mean to harbor on a specific point, but it’s appalling to me that this detective from the beginning refused to hold himself accountable even to the point of creating a narrative that is so far out of his professional comprehension. It was his attempt to distance my son’s death from their many neglectful acts throughout that morning. Detective Beniga misled my family, telling them McKeever wouldn’t have lived log because of the shot to his abdomen. My family and I have spoken with doctors, nurses and a military war doctor and all have said abdomen wounds have a 95% survival rate if aid is provided. The other 5% to assume the detective was acquainting my son to. If it hits an artery, you don’t have a lot of time. The signs of a person who dies from a gunshot wound that hits and artery is quite noticeable. Blood would be shooting from the wound and there would be a lot in it. In my son’s car, there wasn’t a lot of blood. Tamra sat with McKeever and wasn’t for sure where he had been shot at because it wasn’t a lot of blood. If the detective stood on his theory, he wouldn’t be blocking the only report that answers all our questions, the autopsy. I pray that this plea for help will reach somebody that can expose what has been done. If I don’t speak out, nobody will.
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Now, I have a question for each person reading this article. What would you do if this were your child?
I am a concerned father seeking answers. If you have any advice that can help get some answers from the Portland Police Bureau about why they handled my son’s case the way they’ve been handling it, can you please reach out and share your thoughts? I’m in immense pain and am at a loss.
Thank you. HOW IS THIS NOT NEWS WORTHY?
– McKeever W. Thompson Jr.
Obituary and memorial page for McKeever: https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/25303179/mckeever-watkins-thompson-iii/wall
Memorial page for McKeever: https://everloved.com/life-of/mckebeer-thomson/
PPB report: https://www.portlandoregon.gov/police/news/read.cfm?id=452609
The Oregonian, “More Black men are dying in Portland homicides than anyone else”: https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2022/08/more-black-men-are-dying-in-portland-homicides-than-anyone-else.html