White / Caucasian, male. Robert Clinton Box, age 55, died on May 29, 2015, outside his rural home near Grants Pass, Oregon, after an encounter with Oregon State Police that began as a late-night domestic disturbance call. Dispatchers told responding troopers that Box’s adult daughter, who uses a wheelchair, had fled the home and reported she’d been assaulted.
Troopers Gregor Smyth and Heather West arrived and, according to investigative accounts, confronted Box as he approached with a handgun; they fired a total of 11 rounds, striking and killing him at the scene. Authorities later said Box had pointed a loaded. 44 Magnum despite commands not to touch the weapon.
Prosecutors reviewed the shooting and concluded the troopers’ use of force was justified, and no criminal charges were filed. There were no arrests in connection with the death; the case proceeded not as a homicide prosecution but as a civil wrongful-death matter brought by Box’s family. Years later, internal records and court filings drew scrutiny to Smyth’s prior tactical decision-making, noting he had been removed from the state police SWAT team several months before the shooting, though the agency maintained the 2015 use of force met legal standards at the time.
After a protracted legal odyssey—complicated by sealed records and an initial dismissal that was later reversed on appeal—the state agreed in March 2023 to resolve the family’s wrongful-death lawsuit with a $1.6 million settlement and an apology from the Oregon State Police superintendent to Box’s widow. The settlement did not include an admission of wrongdoing, but it closed a case that had lingered for nearly eight years and kept public attention on how the confrontation unfolded that night. Memorial listings and local coverage continue to mark May 29, 2015, as the date Robert Clinton Box, age 55, was killed by police gunfire in Grants Pass.
