Standoff In Portland Ends After Four Hours Gunman Wounds Two, Takes Four Hostage In Downtown Building

A man shot two people in a Portland parking garage Thursday, then took four others hostage and holed up in an office building for several hours before surrendering.

Shirtless and handcuffed, the gunman was led from the building to a police car about four hours after the standoff began. He was identified as James H. Rincker, 24, of Portland.

Police said Rincker had been fired from his job as a deliveryman after having problems with the female employees of a company in the office tower.

“He was angry at these women and decided he was going to go there and shoot them,” said police Lt. C.W. Jensen. Authorities expected to charge him with assault and attempted murder.

Witnesses said the man, who was then wearing military fatigues and a black beret, left the basement garage after the shooting and went to the lobby of the 30-story KOIN Center.

There, witnesses said, he began firing at officers, who were responding to building alarms, seized a hostage and barged into the Charles Schwab brokerage, where he took more hostages.

Office workers in the tower were trapped during the four hours he spent negotiating with police.

Stockbroker Ken Aiken was released about two hours after the standoff began. A woman was released after another 1-1/2 hours. The remaining two women were let go shortly before the gunman surrendered.

Alan Kolkemo, 24, of Beaverton, was shot twice in the back. Howard Barley, 45, of Milwaukie, was shot three or four times in the leg. Both were in fair condition at University Hospital.

KOIN-TV cameraman Lory Olson said he encountered the gunman in the parking garage after the shootings. He said the gunman smashed the weapon onto the concrete floor, apparently because it had jammed.

During the standoff, a security officer at Charles Schwab’s San Francisco office called the Portland office and the gunman answered the phone, said Hugo Quackenbush, senior vice president for the brokerage.

The security officer, who had heard something was going on in the Portland office, kept the man on the phone for about an hour until police hostage negotiators could take over.

“He had demands on changing some of the practices of the banking and insurance industry,” Quackenbush said. “He doesn’t want to die and he wants to live. And it’s not a matter of money.”

Nick Mayer, who works for AT&T Capital, another tenant in the building, said he saw the gunman grab a woman from behind and heard shots as he ran out of the building.

“I came down the stairs and saw a guy with fatigue pants and a rifle with a scope on it. I heard shots. He was shouting, ‘Come here,’ at me,” Mayer said.