HOMELESSNESS
<<A 48-year-old man was indicted this week for shooting at three people at a southwest Portland homeless camp in March, according to the Multnomah County District Attorney on Friday.
Ryan S. Fardreamer was indicted by a grand jury on Monday for 12 charges that include attempted murder, assault and robbery.>>
<<Witnesses told police that Fardreamer drove to a homeless camp near Interstate 5 and Capitol Highway that day, then used his vehicle to block victims in.
They said he began firing shots at three people and hit a man in the leg as the man was trying to drive out of the camp.
One man that Fardreamer was targeting hit Fardreamer’s vehicle with his own as the victim tried to drive away from the encampment. According to witnesses, Fardreamer later found the man in his truck, poured gasoline over the vehicle, and threatened to set the truck on fire if he was not paid for the damage to his own vehicle.>>
<<Following his indictment, the court issued a warrant and Fardreamer was arrested the next day.
At the time of the arrest, police said Fardreamer had two firearms with him. According to the DA’s office, Fardreamer has multiple felony convictions from other states, including fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct in Minnesota and third-degree sexual assault in Iowa. He is facing an additional charge for possessing a firearm as a felon.>>
AMBULANCE
<<A patient assaulted and chased down an ambulance crew as they attempted to transport him during an apparent mental health crisis on Thursday morning, according to officials.
The situation unfolded shortly before 8 a.m. on Southwest Pacific Highway and Canterbury Lane, Tigard police stated, significantly delaying traffic in the area. The patient is said to have unbuckled himself in the back of the ambulance before allegedly attacking the Metro West crew.
According to police, the man began by hitting the paramedic in the head and neck. The EMT that was driving stopped the ambulance and attempted to pull the patient off the paramedic, but said the patient pushed backward and began assaulting the EMT in the chest and throat.>>
<<When the EMT escaped the ambulance, police say the patient chased him down Highway 99W with a rock.
Once officers arrived, they say they found the man still chasing the EMT on the side of the highway near Southwest Beef Bend Road. Police intervened and restrained the patient, who was sent to the hospital again in a different ambulance – this time with a Tigard officer to ensure everyone’s safety.>>
<<In the past year, American Medical Response has also reported first responders assaulted on the job. Tigard police say they have seen an increase in mental health crises and scenes can quickly become dynamic.>>
<<A man suffering from a “mental health crisis” and armed with a rock chased an EMT down Highway 99 in southwest Tigard on Thursday morning, according to the Tigard Police Department.
Just before 8 a.m., police responded to the area of Southwest Pacific Highway and Canterbury Lane after the two-person crew of a Metro West ambulance reported they had been assaulted by a patient.
According to police, the patient was being taken to a hospital for a mental health evaluation after a police call in Sherwood earlier that morning. While in the ambulance, he unbuckled himself and began hitting the paramedic in the head and neck.
The EMT who was driving stopped the ambulance and went to the back of the rig to try and pull the patient off the paramedic. The patient then began “assaulting the EMT in the chest and throat,” police said.
The EMT got out of the ambulance, but the patient started chasing him with a rock along Highway 99W, according to police.
Police officers said they found the man still chasing the EMT on the side of the highway near Southwest Beef Bend Road.
Officers caught up to and restrained the patient using “less-lethal force,” they said.
The patient was taken to the hospital in a second ambulance with a police officer riding along with the crew. The EMT was also taken to the hospital for evaluation.
The patient was cited for two counts of assault.>>
https://www.kptv.com/2023/07/14/patient-armed-with-rock-chases-emt-down-hwy-99-sw-tigard/
RIOT COPS
<<When a protester sued Portland after being injured by a police flash-bang grenade, city attorneys came up with a novel defense: a loophole in Oregon’s tort law that they said absolved the city of financial responsibility for “any claim arising out of riot.”
<<On June 28, a U.S. District Judge Michael Simon threw out that argument. Simon sided with a magistrate judge who determined in April that the intent of the loophole was only to help government’s obtain liability insurance by absolving them of financial responsibility for damage caused by rioters.
“So far as we can tell from the history of this state, police officers have never enjoyed such an immunity,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Julie A. Rosso noted. “The text, context, and legislative history of [the Oregon Tort Claims Act] is at odds with the City’s assertion of immunity.”
Meghan Opbroek was hospitalized after a flash grenade “blew off chunks of her flesh“ during protests in North Portland in June 2020, according to a legal complaint she filed in 2022. She accused the police of excessive force and the city of negligence.>>
UMATILLA
<<A lawsuit against a former Umatilla police officer is likely to move forward, but the scope could be significantly narrowed.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew Hallman heard arguments Friday on whether a roughly $26 million lawsuit against former Umatilla Det Sgt. Bill Wright, his commanders and the Umatilla Police Department should be dismissed.
At the end of the hearing, Hallman said he would issue a ruling within the next 60 days, but indicated that he was inclined to let part of the lawsuit against Wright move forward while dismissing other parts of the case.
The lawsuit alleges that Wright failed to investigate the 2018 sexual assault of a minor — named Jane Doe in the suit to protect her identity — by Michael Wayne Lyon, who was 34 at the time and traveled from out of state to carry out the attack.
The FBI arrested Lyon in 2020 and he was convicted of child sex abuse. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March.
According to the lawsuit, Doe and her family provided Lyon’s first name and a physical description to Wright in 2018, as well as video from the assault that Lyon had sent to Doe’s brother as part of a threat.
“The police did nothing,” the lawsuit states. “Det. Sgt. Wright and his superiors did not send the video in for forensic analysis, send the phone in to pull the data from all the conversations, attempt to obtain a subpoena or warrant for social media activity, or check the security footage from the hotel (where the assault happened).”>>
JAIL DEATH
<<The family of a man who hanged himself in Clackamas County Jail in 2021 filed a lawsuit last month accusing the county and its medical contractor of negligence.
Jermelle Madison Jr., 23, suffering from schizophrenia, was not put on suicide watch despite telling the police officer who transported him to jail that he was going to kill himself, according to the legal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Portland. His death led to protests in the streets and a subsequent threat of legal action first reported by KOIN-TV early last year.
In the past two years, Madison’s attorneys have obtained additional documentation from the county detailing the final days of his life.
Shortly after being booked into the jail on June 20, 2021, Madison’s grandmother called the jail twice to request he be placed on suicide watch. He was not, according to the legal complaint. Officers noted that Madison was “prone to outbursts both verbal and physical,” and he was placed in disciplinary segregation, the lawsuit alleges.
A week later, he returned from a court date and demanded a nurse but was ignored, according to the complaint. A half-hour later, Madison was found hanging from his bunk and transported to the hospital on life support.
“Mr. Madison’s records show that neither a treatment plan was developed nor was proper documentation kept indicating that he exhibited signs and symptoms of suicidal ideation, despite apparent prior knowledge of this,” the complaint alleges.
The lawsuit makes allegations similar to those in a $20 million lawsuit filed in May on behalf of the estate of Rhonda Burke, who committed suicide in the same jail a month prior.>>
<<Chavez says the county needs to drop its for-profit health care contractor, Alabama-based NaphCare, which is named in both of the recent lawsuits. NaphCare is contracted by both Clackamas and Washington counties. “These private jail and prison health care companies are nickel-and-diming taxpayers—and killing people,” Chavez says.>>
GRAFFITI
<<Several southeast Portland businesses are fed up with continuous graffiti on their walls.>>
<<Just a few blocks down from where she works, she explained that she’s especially disappointed that a mural of Darcelle XV was vandalized, a Portland icon who passed away a short while ago.
“I watch how much effort goes into an art piece like this,” she looked at the vandalized mural, “and it’s just blatantly tarnishing somebody’s work. I can’t imagine how disheartening that would be to come in and see your work defaced for no reason.”>>
https://www.kptv.com/2023/07/15/portland-businesses-fed-up-with-graffiti/
911
<<Oregon’s 911 system has seen a 40% jump in accidental calls over the past year.
New smartphone technology makes it increasingly easier to call 911.
Frank Kuchta with the Oregon Department of Emergency Management said that’s a good thing. But accidental calls are through the roof.>>
https://www.opb.org/article/2023/07/15/oregon-911-iphone-android-crash-detection/