Shooting victim lured to his death

Despite a few suspicions, John Ramsey Tainton-Platts thought he was going to another photo shoot on Friday afternoon, according to Eugene police.

The popular Eugene man, who friends say was everything from a professional photographer to a Eugene Opera singer to a Hult Center usher, drove up hilly McLean Boulevard in southwest Eugene on Friday afternoon thinking he was going to the home of a woman who had messaged him to arrange the meeting on Tuesday.

Instead, Tainton-Platts, 33, who everyone knew simply as “Ramsey,” came face-to-face with his girlfriend’s ex-husband, Nicholas Hazel, in the cul-de-sac where Hazel lived.

The 48-year-old Hazel shot Tainton-Platts to death with a semiautomatic handgun before going inside his duplex at 2132 McLean Blvd. and taking his own life with a semiautomatic rifle, police said Saturday.

But not before Hazel let his ex-wife know what he had done, and what he was about to do.

Immediately after he fired multiple shots, killing Tainton-Platts, Hazel sent a text message to his ex-wife, “stating that he had just murdered her loverboy,” Eugene police detective Jeff Donaca said. Then he said “he, himself, was next.”

It took several hours, though, before a police robot was able to maneuver its way through Hazel’s home and find his body in the garage, Donaca said.

The first report of shots fired came at 3:30 p.m. Friday, and the robot found Hazel’s body at 10:38 p.m., Donaca said.

The front door of Hazel’s home was locked from the inside, so police had to break through it after waiting for a search warrant, Donaca said. The duplex is a multistory unit, making maneuvering through it difficult for the robot, he said.

“Mr. Tainton-Platts knew that his girlfriend’s (ex-) husband lived in that area,” Donaca said. “He and his girlfriend conversed about some concerns about going up into that area. But, ultimately, he felt comfortable going there because the address provided by the person purporting to be a female would have been several residences away from where Mr. Hazel lived.”

According to court records, the divorce of Nicholas and Margaret Hazel, who said Saturday that she now goes by Margaret Alexander, was final on March 30, and the two had been separated since June 2013. They had joint custody of a son, records say.

Alexander responded to a Facebook message, saying about Tainton-Platt: “He was the kindest, most helpful man I’ve ever known. Incredibly intelligent, he had an opinion on everything, and was constantly seeking to learn more. He cared deeply about all the people around him. He made a difference in many people’s lives.”

Others close to Tainton-Platts expressed shock and outrage.

“Ramsey was one of the kindest, giving, selfless individuals I’ve ever met,” said Kristin Walker, who knew Tainton-Platts through the Crossroads Blues/Fusion dance group both belonged to. “The thought that somebody would commit such a violent act like that against him is absurd. I can’t believe that somebody would do that, pose as a client, that’s just cruel.”

Donaca declined to provide the address that Hazel gave Tainton-Platts on Tuesday, because police are not sure it’s a valid address or if someone lives there.

“But it wasn’t many numbers from 2132,” Donaca said. “We don’t know the exact sequence of events that occurred when he got there. Mr. Tainton-Platts’ vehicle was parked at the driveway that leads to the duplex, 2130 and 2132.”

Responding officers found Tainton-Platts in front of Hazel’s home Friday afternoon and were able to remove him but could not revive him, Donaca said.

Police blockaded the 2100 block of McLean Boulevard for about eight hours on Friday, bringing in a SWAT team and crisis negotiation team after receiving the first reports of shots fired.

Earlier reports of a standoff were false, Donaca said. There was never any communication with Hazel, he said.

SWAT team members entered the garage and found Hazel’s body before 11 p.m., Donaca said.

Walker said she was close to both Tainton-Platts and Alexander. She received a phone call from Alexander on Saturday morning telling her what happened.

“Shock. Sadness. I feel numb …” said Walker, who informed the 488 Facebook members of the Crossroads Blues/Fusion group of Tainton-Platts’ death.

“Ramsey was a dancer, a very talented opera singer, an actor, a photographer, a gamer, and one of the kindest men I’ve ever met,” she wrote on Facebook. “He helped myself and so many others with so many things, and never asked for anything in return.”

Louise Thomas, former owner of the Bijou Art Cinemas on East 13th Avenue and front of house manager at the Hult Center, said Tainton-Platts was one of 80 ushers she could call on for events at the performing arts center.

In fact, she had just seen him on Thursday, when he worked an outdoor show in the Hult Center Plaza for “The Embodiment Project,” a San Francisco hip-hop group.

“He was great,” Thomas said. “He was fun. He’s one of the guys I would rely on if I needed someone strong and physical.”

But his personality was “real gentle,” Thomas said.

“He will just be sorely missed,” she added. “He was a sweet, magnificent character.”

In addition to performing as a tenor with the Eugene Opera, Tainton-Platts’ LinkedIn page listed Kesey Enterprises and IATSE 675, a stagehand union, under his work history, and Lane Community College (2004-2010) and West Texas A&M University (2000-2002) under education.

The page also says he volunteered to read books to preschool kids for SMART (Start Making a Reader Today).

The deaths of Tainton-Platts and Hazel were at least the third murder-suicide, and among several killings, in Lane County this year.

On July 3, Springfield apartment manager Shawn Newell, 39, was shot and killed by a 71-year-old tenant who was about to be evicted. The tenant, Ronald F. Cottle, fatally shot himself after slaying Newell, according to police reports.

On July 11, a 54-year-old man, George Patrick Santos, killed roommate Heidi Christine Rice before setting on fire the Teralee Lane house in west Eugene where they lived and then fatally shooting himself, Eugene police said.

On June 25, police arrested Jeremy Daniel Ringquist, who was charged with killing his parents and then hiding their bodies in a chest-style freezer at the family’s home off Game Farm Road. Ringquist, 38, committed suicide in his jail cell a few days later, police said.

Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkBakerRG. Email [email protected].