Police say today that 35 year old Wayne Conrad Thompson has been booked for allegedly causing a crash with a man on a bike yesterday afternoon at 2:00pm at NE 122nd and Glisan.
Thompson has been arrested and charged with one count of assault in the first degree. The charge is a Class A felony, and is used when police suspect there is an intention to cause serious physical injury to another person by means of a deadly weapon.
The victim is in serious condition at a local hospital. Police describe him as an adult white male but have not released his identity.
Thompson is being held on $250,000 bail and will be arraigned on Monday. If he is tried and convicted of the crime he is charged with, the minimum mandatory prison sentence will be 90 months (7.5 years).
The crash took place a mile and a half away from, and on the same road as, a hit and run fatality involving a man on a bike that took place very early in the morning on the previous day.
The initial police report about the crash is here; the follow-up report about the arrest is here.
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ok, that seals it; i am never riding 122 again. least not until something changes. these people are crazy!
outer NE PDX is not safe for bikes, regardless of having a bike lane or not. 122nd is nerveracking. I feel sorry for those who must commute in this area because it just isnt safe.
Just a preliminary reminder, folks, to keep your commentary as level headed as possible here. Lets not go the way of the mainstream news sites with vengeful raving and speculation.
In theory our justice system considers everyone innocent until proven guilty — and all the facts are not yet in here.
Elly, I wish for your sake you didn’t have to be policing or for that matter posting today. Thanks for posting this important update, but I’d understand if you locked comments until Monday and enjoyed a well earned weekend.
“The crash took place a mile and a half away from, and on the same road as, a fatality involving a man on a bike that took place very early in the morning on the previous day.”
Are there any details about this crash?
Marie, thanks for asking — here is our story about Thursday’s hit and run fatality. Police have released the victim’s name, but we haven’t received any other new updates. I just added that link to this story, as well.
Twistyaction, thanks for the concern. I trust you all to keep it sane on here. The big thing we ask you all is that if someone else says something inflammatory, don’t respond in kind.
FYI, here’s an excellent example of blog comment guidelines that a reader recently sent us.
PPD link #1375 says: “Detectives are in the processing of investigating whether this incident was an accident or whether it was an intentional act.”
You say: “Police say today that 35 year old Wayne Conrad Thompson has been booked for allegedly causing a crash with a man on a bike yesterday afternoon…” Elly Blue
So despite an ongoing investigation to determine whether or not the act was intentional, apparently there was enough evidence in hand already to charge him. Is he being held in custody, or was he charged and released?
Bob, the continuation of the story, which is linked to first and provides more of the facts in this post is on PPD link #1376. Apparently they found what they needed to make the arrest this morning.
Elly,
Your instructions to “(N)ot go the way of the mainstream news sites with vengeful raving and speculation” are a bit confusing given that in your headline you state that the suspect is “charged with intentionally running down (a) person on (a) bike.”
The police report to which you link explicitly states that, “Detectives are in the processing of investigating whether this incident was an accident or whether it was an intentional act.”
What’s the purpose of posting if you don’t have all the facts, especially if you’re concerned that comments will include unreasonable assumptions and vitriolic speculations? Most importantly, why make a speculation of your own in the headline that sets a confusing precedent for readers?
Yes, I understand your interpretation of the specific crime with which the suspect is charged, but it still does not validate the speculative quality of the word “intentionally” in your headline.
I can appreciate the pertinence of this incident given that Outer SE is a comparatively dangerous place to cycle (I know because I grew up not 10 blocks from that intersection) and readers of this blog are eager to hear how cyclist/motorist interactions play out there, but if posting an incomplete news item necessitates instructing readers on how to interpret and react to the item, it’s probably just better to wait until you have the whole story.
[As I’ve pointed out, there is a second police report which states that Mr. Thompson was arrested and charged with 1st degree assault, the definition of which is intention to harm. This story links to both reports. I’m going to see if I can figure out a way to edit the story so that this is more clear. — Elly]
The traffic is very heavy on NE and SE 122nd Ave. It’s a difficult street for pedestrians, too — especially where it intersects with the east-west arterials like Halsey, Glisan, Stark, and Division because there are so many cars turning at these intersections.
The alleged perp remains in custody: http://www.mcso.us/paid/BookingDetail.aspx?ID=9eHDv8UIAcSvnj/WGWcUtA==
(I only use “alleged” because it is legally correct; factually, there is no dispute about whether this guy hit the cyclist.)
While I appreciate that a suspect has been arrested and charged, if he’s being charged with intentionally causing the accident, hitting the cyclist on purpose, then why is he not charged with attempted murder? I don’t think this is shrill or rhetoric, If I had intentionally shot someone but they did not die, I would most likely be charged with attempted murder, and a car is just as dangerous as a gun when used to injure someone.
The story has been updated to clarify the sequence of the police reports.
1st degree assault is the booking charge – sufficient to require serious bail and to hold the driver in custody. At arraignment, the charges can be changed if the investigation warrants it. Given the desire to hold the guy over the weekend, it’s likely they chose charges that would facilitate that without raising a lot of questions about whether they were too harsh, and would result in him being released on recognizance.
We’ll see what happens on Monday. Right now, I’m more worried about the cyclist. The driver’s off the road right now.
Elly, thanks for working to clear that up. I could swear that the first time I looked at #1376, it did not state that the suspect had been charged and booked. If it had, I wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of posting a question about it. Maybe it was just an oversight on my part.
I was trying to figure out if you’d got the word he’d been arrested, directly from PIO Detective Wheat or another PPD source on the phone.
The O posted an online story about this at 10:03 AM.
Swift Benjamin…can’t be so quick to draw conclusions. Got to know the statutes and have evidence murder was in mind. Intending to hurt someone doesn’t necessarily mean an intent to kill was in mind.
Some of the more vulgar posts have been removed from oregonlive.com, it’s actually rather tame considering the history there.
I was afraid to look at the KATU site.
Thank you all for your concern – the cyclist is my brother. Your loving thoughts and prayers are appreciated as our family gets through this nightmare…
Disastronaut, the KATU story is over-the-top ridiculous.
BTW, Jonathan and Elly, perhaps a story about the blatant attempt by KATU to use this story to stir up anger against cyclists is in order….
Is it vengeful raving and speculation to congratulate this guy with a hearty “Nice going, moron!”
One thing I don’t get. If it was intentional, why did the guy sit around at the scene and wait for the cops to get there? Regret? Too many witnesses for him to get away without having been seen?
This is awful. Best wishes to the cyclist and his family.
Rixtir, thanks for the tip about the KATU story. We’re looking into it.
Rollie, appreciate your asking, but nope, that’s not quite the tone we’re going for.
LML, so sorry for what your brother and your family are going through right now. Hang in there.
A question for Elly? You seem really concerned about opinion posted here, but I wonder, do you ever go on other internet sites? If bikeportland is really concerned about comments posted on this site, you should just stop posting any of them. This site is really mild, never much controversy, the internet is full of inane opinion, if you think you are going to police this and you want to spend your time doing it, good luck! If you are really worried about offensive comments being posted, I suggest you go into another line of work. It would be wonderful if everybody posted thoughtful, non offensive opinions, but I think you are wasting your time to think the net is going to produce anything else.
Bummer, I hope the guy recovers quickly.
old&slow, there was an interesting ethics opinion piece in the NY TImes last week, arguing that the anonymity of the internet is what creates an environment in which venom rules. In the author’s opinion, dialogue would be more civil if people had to sign their names to their comments.
er, rixtir
Thanks for making the item more clear, Elly.
I really appreciate and respect this blog’s willingness to accept and respond to comments. As others here have stated, the discussions rarely devolve to the name-calling and door-slamming that characterize our region’s larger news organizations’ comment sections.
It would behoove all of us to remember that Oregonlive, KATU, etc. are in the business of selling us information, and exciting information isn’t always accurate information. People who spout off in those comments sections are responding to the inaccuracy and editorialization that characterize much of those organizations’ “journalism.”
I sincerely hope that the cyclist is recovering quickly; best wishes to him and his loved ones!
rixtir, they were right. The internet is ruining any reasonable discussion these days, but I am not sure what you can do about it. That was my point with Elly, if you are worried about what people might post, forget about it unless you just enjoy headaches! To get off topic, the healthcare debate is so over the top concerning all the crap that is being posted, we will never get anything done. Same goes for about every public policy debate including transportation issues. The internet is the playground of “birthers”,” 911 conspiracists”, and every other nutjob with an agenda. Thank god, people like me post here to give some sanity to these discussions.
We’ve been having a lot of conversations lately about comment policies and moderation. We’re experimenting with a little bit more outright editing of some comments (personal insults and violent hating, usually) and a lot more jumping into the fray ourselves early and often to try to set the tone and remind everyone to keep it real.
Call me a starry-eyed idealist, but I think if there’s enough self-policing and tone-setting in any group, even one where many participants are anonymous, it’s possible to avoid the Lord of the Flies syndrome old&slow speaks of. Hopefully spending the time now will reduce the amount of time needed in the future. So lets see how it goes.
Anyone else want to chime-in on OregonLive? I’m feeling a bit lonely there…
Old & slow, I understand that you think civic discourse is breaking down, but the goal here is to change that. For the sake of sanity, lets move this conversation to another venue. How about coming out to our next event and having the discussion in person?
My decision to spend the time wading into the conversation on this post is because whenever there is a crash the commentary often devolves very quickly, and I hoped to see if it’s possible to prevent that, as well as to forestall the need to delete anyone’s comments. It makes me cringe to think of family members of the people involved reading comments associating political rants and underinformed finger-pointing with their personal tragedy.
Elly, I hope you don’t think I was criticizing you. I appreciate you want to change the tone, however the internet is what it is, pretty hard to do if you are going to publish comments from any anonymous person who decides to log on. I was trying to save you some grief!
I agree with Elly that self-policing can be effective. Many sites, like this, seem to become a kind of community, with norms and mores that regulate behavior. I think over time the anonymity breaks down, basically. Also, things like the get-togethers help alot so you can put faces to names.
When I’m bored and want to write something other than technical specifications, I’ll sometimes chime in on a KATU comment thread and my strategy is just to be endlessly, relentlessly reasonable (as best I can). Who knows if it works…
This is not a good year for my bike routes. I will be riding up and down 122nd four days a week in the fall to go to school. Unless I decide to take Prescott. Oh yeah, there was a fatal crash there earlier this year.
PBOT work on some bike boulevards in outer Portland or sharrows or buffered bike lanes or something. Let’s ditch on street parking on 122nd and get some color in the bike lanes near the intersections.
Speedy recovery to our fallen friend.
Yes, speedy recovery to our fallen friend.
mailto:gm@katu.com
mailto:webstaff@katu.com
mailto:custserv@katu.com
mailto:problemsolvers@katu.com
mailto:viewersvoice@katu.com
Same neighborhood; in general; as the ‘bad one’ the other nite? Could Karmic Justice be so kind as to let this be the SAME dingus-maximus? At least the known odds of ‘intentional’ – attempted vehicle murderers would be reduced overall this way {Swift Benjamin, i agree} – (i assume leaving the scene implies admission of guilt by the hit and run driver…a coward such as that deserves only hells’ justice.) At least one of them got caught, anyway…It’s always heart rending to hear of a fellow rider being hurt so. I send hopes of a full and speedy recovery to our fallen comrade with best wishes for family and friends as well. – {i try not to ‘say’ anything in forums i wouldn’t feel ashamed about if my grandmother was ‘in the room’}; I.E. * terms of use *
Really wsbob? (Swift Benjamin…can’t be so quick to draw conclusions. Got to know the statutes and have evidence murder was in mind. Intending to hurt someone doesn’t necessarily mean an intent to kill was in mind.)?
Really?
As fragile as human beings are in the face of tons of steel and often indifferant indiscretions, can a distinction of the differance between ‘to injure’ or ‘to murder’ matter when citizens are perishing? If i use a weapon to try and injure, but end up inadverdantly killing, are you implying i should be charged for only my intentions?
Homicide with a weapon should be murder(.) That was a period. Just because a person doesn’t have to ‘load’ or ‘seven day waiting period’ a car doesn’t make it any less a weapon when a person uses it that way. Road rage laws are years behind where they should be…our sentimental attachment to the glory days of the auto, i suppose.
Re the KATU story, I’ve had an ongoing discussion in the comments section with the reporter, and it appears that there was a genuine misunderstanding of the law on her part, rather than an intentional effort to mislead KATU readers.
‘One more driver facing prison time for colliding with a Portland cyclist’
That KATU article is really messed up. It’s been watered down since first being put online, but it still contains questionable statements and is needlessly inflammatory.
LML, all the best to your brother and family. I hope he is able to make a complete recovery in short order.
KATU is surprisingly apologetic and dissarming, it’s true.
Jollydodger and everyone else that’s wondering, go here:
Leg-State of Oregon-Chapter 163 — Offenses Against Persons
You can read the full statutes elsewhere using the numbers assigned to each one.
I was just trying to encourage Swift Benjamin and anyone else reading that’s interested, to have some awareness of the laws that protect us all.
“If i use a weapon to try and injure, but end up inadverdantly killing, are you implying i should be charged for only my intentions?” Jollydodger
Well, as I understand it…yes, the law is written to take intention into account. For example, in the last year or so, there was a trial for a guy that killed his roommate with a gun; best buddies, best of friends. Death occurred in the apartment. Dude was handling a gun, (because you know how ‘cool’ some people think it is to have a gun) thought he’d unloaded it, points it at his buddy, pulls the trigger, kills him.
Was it an accident? Or did he deliberately kill him? Should the penalty be the same in each instance because the dude had a gun?
As to this particular incident, it’s very interesting that the guy driving was charged and arrested on the scene. What’s that tell us?
How many times around here in the last couple years has it happened that a motor vehicle driver hits, injures or kills a vulnerable road user and just walks away? Seems like more than a few times.
I am so sorry for the rider. It haunts all of us as we operate in a civil society based on trust–as has been pointed out on this site, paint is not what protects us (e.g. our own lane) but rather the social norms of non-murderous intent upon which all of us rely daily as we ride alongside monster vehicles (compared to us). I am so very sorry every time some cyclist pays this extreme price of pain.
Elly, thank you for your experiment in trying to reclaim civil discourse from the flames of the internet. If you save one person from becoming so enraged that s/he confronts a motorist without thinking, you will have possibly saved a life. That is worth all your ‘futile’ efforts against the online tide.
I am co-designing a new civil discourse initiative at PSU and that is what I keep in mind. If all our efforts ‘only’ keep one person from engaging in a disastrous fashion, it will have been worth it. The more that individuals in every institution engage in these efforts, the less damage that terrible tide of hate-rage-personal attack will cause. Cyclists aren’t the problem, obviously, but we can push motorists to react catastrophically, and it may be against the next one, not even ourselves. I certainly have to watch my temper as motorists drift into the bike lane or nearly right-hook me. I’ve lost it and had nose-to-nose arguments twice in Portland with drivers and I am supposed to know better! In our environment of conflict, it takes constant effort for those of us who are so imperfect.
Mostly, let’s offer our support to the poor cyclist in such pain. It’s our fear and he is suffering it.
@Dave … just a gentle reminder, not all cyclists are riding $3500 Trek bikes with $60 helmets and toting $30 SIGG water bottles. Many cyclists are themselves (ourselves) poor and working-class people, of various ethnicities and backgrounds. Some may even be those you classify as “rednecks”.
I no longer live in Portland, but live and ride in a city that’s mostly non-white, a mix of very wealthy and very poor. Few wear helmets here, but y’know, I feel safer riding even with fewer bike amenities because there’s less hostility generally.
Pdxile, I deleted the comment you are (thoughtfully, thanks) responding to here almost as soon as it came in — though clearly not quite soon enough. — Elly
The KATU story is here.
It’s been changed substantially after a lengthy back and forth between rixtir and the reporter in the comments (thanks, man!).
Unfortunately, the headline about how “one more driver faces jailtime” is still misleading (the only person in Portland in my memory of the last few years to face jail time was Johnny Eshweiler, but he was found insane and did not serve any time).
Also, the reporter still states that reckless driving is a felony (it’s a misdemeanor) and implies that it’s the charge in this case (it isn’t) — it appears that she is confused and thinks the new vehicular assault law is the only charge that can apply in a car-bike crash.
Rixtir, I just read through that thread on KATU, and I must say you are on point over there.
Kudos and thanks.
Well, I am glad that the Police are taking these accidents more seriously and charging the driver. If he is innocent, let the facts prove the case, but it sounds as if the Police have irrefutable evidence from the scene that the vehicle violated the bicycle’s right of way.
The ultimate decision is that jury. Most jurists side with drivers I think.
#47 along with the new stations, and most news papers! hope our cycle friend heals well. Ive noticed a ton of motor fokes getting all worked more and more these days, toooo much T.V and negative facts.
be safe all! Ride ON!
Just a big thanks to Elly for such care and such timely articulate delivery of important stuff.
I work nights as a factory rat, and pass through the bowels of that region. I quit bike commuting after sundown there. Safer bet being a javelin catcher at the next Olympic games.
I lost count of the drive-by verbal threats I fielded in the black of night. It had nothing to do with my lack of visibility, but everything to do with car loads of angry knuckle draggers looking for an easy target. Apparently cyclists are easy prey to spit venom at.
My coworker once drove a Tri Met route through there. When I asked about safe routes for night bike commuting, he asked “do you have a concealed weapons permit?.” I took the hint and retired the bike from night commutes.