(Photo: Mult. Co. Sheriff)
Members of a local cycling team were pepper sprayed by a man in the parking lot of a store on Sauvie Island this afternoon. The incident was reported on the Oregon Bicycle Racing Association email list by David Root, road team director for the Therapeutic Associates Cycling team.
Root says that he and other members of the team had just finished a motor-pacing session when they pulled into the parking lot of the Cracker Barrel Grocery Store near the Sauvie Island Bridge when a man driving a Ford F150 pick-up attempted to back out of the store. “When we pulled past him he rolled down his window and asked why we were staring at him and we told him that we’re just trying get past him and that we weren’t staring,” wrote Root. “He then continued to back out and clipped our moto driver Jon [Pearson] and then proceeded to try and start a altercation with Jon.”
Then, according to Root, the man in the pickup threatened Pearson and, “Then quickly as if he had it cocked and ready to go, pulled out the most powerful Police grade Pepper Spray and shot him at close range “full discharge” in the eyes and face and some of the rest of us got a little too.”