Tony Orland Mills

How they died

Deadly force

Police responded to I-5 at Exit 45A following reports of a suicidal man armed with a handgun. While enroute to the scene, police said they called in medical personnel to stage in the area. The first trooper arrived at 8:45 p.m. Officers said they found Tony Orland Mills on Rogue River Highway, underneath the I-5 overpass, armed with a handgun. At 8:59 p.m., the man was shot and killed. "Mills reportedly told police he was not dropping his gun, then raised his right hand and shot himself in the head. Lacer, an 11-year OSP veteran, testified that he believed Mills was firing in the direction of police when he fired a single round from his duty rifle that hit Mills in the arm and pectoral area. The Jackson County Medical Examiner ruled Mills' cause of death a suicide, determining that the self-inflicted injury -- a near-contact gunshot in the right temporal region of his head -- was fatal. The shot that pierced Mills' arm would not have been fatal."

Why we remember them

This record exists so that Tony Orland Mills, and all who are named in this archive, are never reduced to a number.

References & sources