Phillip Max Ferry

The investigation into the Seaside shooting is expected to be complete within the next two weeks.

Seaside Police Sgt. Jason Goodding was shot and killed Friday night by Phillip Ferry, who was being arrested on a felony assault warrant. Ferry was shot at the scene by another Seaside Police officer and later died.

In any case involving the use of deadly force, regional law enforcement must collaborate on an investigation.

Oregon State Police are the lead agency on the investigation with help from the Clatsop County Major Crimes Team, comprised of all local law enforcement agencies. Seaside Police will not be involved in the investigation, but will conduct an internal review.

The focus of the investigation is whether the shooting of Ferry was justified.

At this point, Clatsop County District Attorney Josh Marquis said, it appears the shooting was justified.

Once Marquis receives the final report from the state police, he will either be able to release a detailed account of the incident confirming it was justified or he will convene a grand jury to investigate any possible wrongdoing.

Investigators are interviewing the officer who shot Ferry and a fourth man, possibly a friend of Ferry’s, who was present during the shooting. Their names have not yet been released.

Body camera footage from police will also be used in the investigation.

The autopsies on Goodding and Ferry have been completed, but results have not been released.

The Oregon Medical Examiner did release Goodding’s remains. He was escorted by law enforcement agencies back to Seaside.

Goodding, 39, is the 183rd law enforcement officer in Oregon to die in the line of duty since records were first kept in the 1880s.

He is the first officer shot and killed in Clatsop County in 35 years.

“Having a police officer shot and killed (in Clatsop County) is extremely unusual,” Marquis said.

The last shooting occurred on May 22, 1980, when Oregon State Police Sgt. James Shepherd, 49, was shot and killed after being ambushed by a 23-year-old man, Michael Sture, in the woods in Knappa. Sture was arrested after a statewide manhunt. He pleaded guilty to murder, and was sentenced to life in prison.

Ferry is known

Local law enforcement was familiar with Ferry. Authorities describe him as a Seaside transient who drifted in and out of Clatsop County and committed crimes for more than two decades. Ferry’s criminal record in Oregon includes more than 40 cases.

“He has been committing felonies on and off for at least 25 years,” Marquis said.

Before the shooting Friday, the most recent criminal cases against Ferry involved him possessing an explosive device, C4, in September and resisting arrest and spitting on two officers in December 2014.

Ferry’s criminal history is littered with aggressive interactions with law officers.

In addition to Clatsop County, Ferry has committed crimes in Yamhill, Polk, Tillamook, Clackamas and Multnomah counties.

As a felon, Ferry was not authorized to possess a gun.

Marquis, who is not a proponent for either side in the national debate over gun rights, said the Seaside shooting points to issues with enforcing gun laws.

“This is the problem with guns in our society,” Marquis said. “We have strict laws that say felons cannot have guns. He had a gun.”