Rubber bullets end standoff
By Terry Murry on Tuesday, December 7th, 2021 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
HERMISTON – Matthew Earns, 30, of Hermiston has been arrested on multiple charges including strangulation, kidnapping, and menacing. Hermiston Police Chief Jason Edmiston says that police were dispatched on a domestic violence call last night and the reporting party said Earns was armed with a gun.
Officers found him in the parking lot of his apartment building armed with two large hunting knives. He kept the officers at bay for about an hour.
During that time he threatened to kill each officer more than once. At one point he stabbed a knife into the cover of an HPD pickup. That’s when officers went with 40 mm less-lethal ammunition.
“Earns was shot once with the 40 mm less-lethal as he was advancing on the officers,” Chief Jason Edmiston wrote in an email. “Earns was shot a second time with the 40 mm less-lethal after refusing to drop the knives.”
At that point, he was arrested and taken to Good Shepherd Medical Center, where he was cleared by the emergency room staff. He was then lodged at the Umatilla County Jail.
After taking Earns into custody, investigators discovered he had strangled his girlfriend and threw her on the floor. He also forced his girlfriend’s elderly mother into her bedroom and threatened to kill her if she came out.
Photo of 40 mm less-lethal ammunition provided by the Hermiston Police Department
