An elderly train passenger in Oregon has been acquitted of attempted murder after shooting a homeless man who allegedly exposed himself and threatened to rape the passenger’s partner.
Michael Grover Phill, 71, said he acted in self-defense when he shot 40-year-old Lance Hicks on a MAX train in North Portland. Hicks had threatened Phill and his legally blind partner, according to testimony reported by The Oregonian.
Hicks, who had a history of mental illness, boarded the train and approached the couple while exposing himself and making threats.
“All of the crotch of his pants is cut out, and his penis is in his hand, and he’s snarling,” Phill told a judge earlier this month at Multnomah County Circuit Court in Portland.
During the frightening encounter in the early hours of Jan. 30, Hicks also threatened to rob Phill and sexually assault his partner.
The couple stood up and attempted to leave, but Hicks continued moving toward them. Phill then pulled a handgun from his jacket, shot Hicks once in the thigh and fled the train.
Phill testified that he shouted, “Do not run up on me!” as Hicks continued approaching before he fired.
“I’m sorry to say that I had to [shoot him]. I didn’t want to,” Phill told his defense attorney, Henry Oostrom-Shah.
Phill faced charges of attempted murder, assault, unlawful use of a weapon and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He could have received about 10 years in prison.
The jury declined to convict him for the shooting, but found him guilty of the firearm possession charges.
At a sentencing hearing last week, Phill received roughly two years in prison. Oostrom-Shah had asked for probation without jail or prison, citing Phill’s age, poor health and the fact that a decade had passed since his last felony conviction.
“I can’t and won’t punish him for the actual shooting. But I do believe that simply having the gun in his possession … may have emboldened him to do things that a reasonable person wouldn’t have done otherwise,” Judge Eric Dahlin said while sentencing Phill.
Phill wears an eyepatch because of glaucoma and a cataract. During the trial, he told the judge that he fired to protect his partner, who is under 5 feet tall, weighs less than 100 pounds and is legally blind after losing her peripheral vision.
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He said he began carrying a gun after being attacked in the past, including three times during his 50 years in Portland and once in California, when a man struck him in the head with an empty 40-ounce beer bottle.
“On the transportation system, you know it seems you run into all types of crazy people,” Phill said.
After the shooting, Phill testified that he tossed the gun into bushes and removed his coat in an effort to avoid detection. A Portland police officer spotted him, however, and he was later arrested.
Phill said his previous convictions made him reluctant to get himself—or Hicks—into further trouble.
“I ain’t no rat, you know. So I was just trying to get away from him,” he said, adding that he had been frightened.
“Black men accused of shooting in Portland late at night? I’ve had my difficulties, you know my past with the law, so it wasn’t going to be good,” Phill told the judge.
Firearms are prohibited aboard TriMet trains.
“This shooting on TriMet never would have happened had Mr. Phill not possessed a firearm,” Deputy District Attorney Branden Meadows said in a statement.
“Perhaps he would have made better choices that evening,” he added, noting that Phill could have alerted security officers who had been on board the train, or pressed the call button.
Hicks wasn’t charged with any crimes, including indecent exposure, by prosecutors over his actions that night.
His apparent mental health problems would have made it difficult to prove he intended to expose his genitals on the train that night, Meadows said.
In 2023, Hicks was convicted of public indecency on a MAX train in Hillsboro after the operator said he saw Hicks expose himself and masturbate.
Hicks was not able to give police an interview due to what cops called his confused mental state, and he did not testify at trial or attend last week’s sentencing hearing.