Baker City man arrested after alleged Court Avenue shooting, SWAT standoff

What started as an ambulance call on Court Avenue ended with a SWAT team on Campbell Street, a closed stretch between 10th and 17th streets, and a Baker City man facing attempted murder charges.

Scott Lee Kenney, 55, was arrested Friday morning, May 1, after Baker City police and county prosecutors say a disturbance inside a home on Court Avenue escalated into an alleged shooting around 4 a.m. District Attorney Greg Baxter said Kenney allegedly fired multiple gunshots inside the residence, where more than one other person was present. No one was hit, but Baxter said the case was charged as attempted murder and first-degree assault because bullets were fired at people inside the house.

Baxter said the first call came in for an ambulance, then the response shifted once officers learned shots had been fired. That change turned the scene from a medical emergency into a violent-crime investigation, with police trying to determine what happened inside the home and where Kenney went afterward.

Investigators later used surveillance-camera images to confirm that after leaving the Court Avenue residence, Kenney returned to his home at 3220 Campbell St. in Baker City. When he initially refused to come out, police called in a SWAT team. Campbell Street was closed for several hours between 10th and 17th streets while officers worked to end the standoff.

Kenney also faces three counts of recklessly endangering another person, two counts of second-degree criminal mischief, one count of first-degree disorderly conduct, two counts of harassment, three counts of unlawful possession of a firearm and one count of pointing a firearm at another person. Baxter said both attempted murder and first-degree assault are Measure 11 crimes, each carrying a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 7 years and 6 months if Kenney is convicted.

Oregon legislative materials say Measure 11 offenses carry mandatory minimum prison terms and no parole or reduction for good behavior. They list attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder at the 7-year, 6-month minimum. Kenney was in the Baker County Jail after his arrest, as the case entered the county’s violent-crime docket and left neighbors with a stark reminder of how quickly a disturbance can become a public-safety emergency when guns are involved.