PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — The man who died after driving a car filled with explosives into the Multnomah Athletic Club had multiple interactions with clinicians responsible for protecting him from himself and making sure he was not a danger to the community.
After a suicide attempt in February, Bruce Whitman had been placed on a peace officer hold and taken to a hospital. His release from the hospital a few weeks later came with a notice of mental illness, a process which triggers an investigation to determine whether civil commitment should be pursued.
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The state’s civil commitment process gave Multnomah County’s Behavioral Health Department five days from that point to investigate the case and decide whether to take Whitman to court and ask a judge to determine that he posed enough of a danger to himself and/or others that he should be held against his will.
The county would not release any information about its determination in the case due to HIPPA laws. However, the District Attorney’s Office, which would have had a civil commitment prosecutor on the case had it been pursued, said the county had not tried to go down that route.
Evidence seized at the scene of a deadly incident at the Multnomah Athletic Club. (Courtesy: Portland Police Bureau)
According to information provided by Whitman’s mother, what likely happened instead was that he was offered some level of diversion that would provide him with mental health services.
Prior to the February incident, there were at least two other instances where Whitman was placed on a temporary peace officer hold and was taken to a hospital.
What sets the February incident apart is that it took place shortly after a new state law meant to remove red tape from the civil commitment process took effect in January.
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During the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers passed HB 2005, effectively lowering the bar for civil commitment, the process by which a judge and a panel of mental health experts decide whether an individual poses a danger to themselves and others. If civilly committed, an individual can be held in a secure facility for up to 180 days.
If the county had successfully obtained civil commitment for Whitman in February, he may still have been held on May 2 when the MAC bombing occurred.
Data obtained from the county shows that since the new law lowering the bar for civil commitment took effect in January, little has changed. The county has filed roughly the same number of civil commitment cases the first four months of 2026 when compared to the first four months of 2025, and it has obtained roughly the same percentage of commitments in cases it filed, a roughly 7% commitment rate, according to data obtained from the Oregon Justice Department.
It is unclear why the county has not seen more success in successfully civilly committing patients since the law change took effect. The county says it will take time to truly understand the impacts of the new law.
“Four months after the implementation of HB 2005, our civil commitment numbers remain consistent with pre-legislation levels. While current trends are steady, more data and time will be necessary to accurately assess the long-term impact of the change,” a spokesperson for the county said in a written statement.
Statewide data for Clackamas and Washington counties show their commitment rates also remain unchanged.
Jerri Clark, resource and advocacy manager at the nonprofit Treatment Advocacy Center, which had advocated for HB 2005, said she remains hopeful that the change will have an impact.
“I support a national Helpline for families trying to navigate systems that intersect with the most severe mental illness conditions. Often families call desperate to help loved ones access treatment before untreated psychosis puts them and others into harm’s way. Often expressing suicidal ideation hasn’t been enough to meet the treatment standard in Oregon, but a family recently told me that an Oregon provider did file a court petition for hospitalization for their loved one who was threatening suicide. The provider said the change in the law made that action reasonable,” she said in a written statement.