The Clackamas County Sheriff’s office arrested a man today after a hit-and-run on SE 82nd just south of King Road (about 12 miles southeast of Portland).
Here’s the story so far from the CCSO:
On August 26, 2014 at approximately 3:00 p.m., Robert B. Hyer, age 30, was riding a bicycle in the bike lane southbound along SE 82nd Avenue. As the bicyclist began riding in front of the entry to a gas station on the west side of SE 82nd Avenue, a Ford pickup driven by Leodan Juarez Belton, age 49, from Clackamas, turned into the gas station and struck the bicyclist, knocking him to the ground.
Juarez Belton checked on the injured bicyclist, went into the gas station store and purchased ice, and then fled the scene in the pickup upon hearing sirens of emergency responders coming to the scene. A Clackamas Fire District #1 firefighter provided the suspect’s vehicle license plate information to a responding OSP trooper.
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The injured bicyclist was transported by ambulance to Kaiser Sunnyside Hospital for treatment of minor injuries.OSP and CCSO responded to the registered owner’s home in the area of SE 157th and SE Sunnyside Road. Officers confirmed who was driving the vehicle but it wasn’t at the house. Officers started driving in the area looking for the pickup when an OSP sergeant found it abandoned in a parking lot at SE 147th Avenue and SE Sunnyside Road.
A approximately 4:15 p.m., a CCSO deputy spotted the suspect walking to his home and detained him. An OSP trooper investigating the incident subsequently arrested JUAREZ BELTON for Felony Hit & Run. He was lodged in the Clackamas County Jail.
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Isn’t King more like 2 miles south of Portland? The Springwater Crossing is roughly the city border on 82nd.
1 mile south of the border and 12 miles from city center. Why is the distance from city center relevant? Distance = sucky infra.
I suspect Jonathan included that information for readers from out of the area.
I always use a central city/downtown location as my “Portland” in this context. And I mentioned the location in this story because I wanted to give people a sense of where the collision occurred.
Just might want to use “downtown Portland” then.
Some might say this is trivial, but we’ve seen on this site many times that a focus on the central city (or “real Portland” as some would suggest”) is a bit of a hot button issue. And those of us that live in outer neighborhoods sometimes do feel marginalized.
I equate this to getting on 205 going south in Washington and all the signs saying “Salem”, when in fact 205 passes through a lot of Portland.
I came here to say the same thing.
I was going to say the same.
Living it outer SE or East Portland we already face enough issues trying to convince people that we actually do live in the city of Portland.
Thanks to everyone involved in catching that guy so quickly.
Hit n run boooooo, hope laws get much stronger regarding this epidemic.
Did they do a breathalyzer test?
pointless… he could have bought and consumed alcohol by the time they caught him…
I will at least give him credit for checking on the cyclist to make sure he didn’t kill or seriously maim him. He is not completely without a conscience like so many hit and runners are.
Glad he was caught. So so glad the injuries to the cyclist were minor.
I thought he bought ice and fled!
as I was reading this : “Juarez Belton checked on the injured bicyclist, went into the gas station store and purchased ice”
thought was he was going to help the cyclist with the ice, but NO , even an accident didn’t stop his purchase.
Did he not realize that abandoning his truck does NOT erase your info from the DMV databases ?
I too would like to see an update , when available , on intoxication , insurance, license …
My first thought is always ‘We really need harsher penalties for felony hit and run in order to put an end to this,’ but then it always turns out to be someone like this guy. He seems to have known that he broke the law because he abandoned his truck in a parking lot, but someone who reasons that walking to the house their vehicle is registered at will leave the Sheriff scratching his head probably doesn’t even know about hit and run much less what the penalty is. How are we supposed to deter that kind of criminal?
“How are we supposed to deter that kind of criminal?”
I hear you. I think part of the problem is that right now penalties for smashing up someone on a bike with your car are easily overlooked, obscure, often waived. I think that upping the ante (along the lines of the campaigns around driving drunk), establishing clear, zero-tolerance policies around vehicular manslaughter, could help in the ways you suggest we need to.
Also I suspect people in his position probably often act irrationally because they are in shock.
I read the ‘bought ice’ part as a gesture of concern for the guy he hit. Like I have no idea what to do for this guy I just smashed up, but ice is something they have here in the store and ice can be good for easing swelling, etc…
The sirens (oh, sh*t, I’m in trouble) were the reason he fled.
I’m really starting to think some drivers really don’t understand they are driving a weapon. How about the cases of ppl getting hit and never reported 🙁 stuck with life long injuries and bills because someone didn’t have the compassion.
Well, in most states within this country, laws are composed to protect the interests of (automobile) insurers. If you understand that premise, most of the applicable codes actually are logical.
To explain: the governing bodies that create codified law do not really care if a person who is NOT insured heavily (auto owners ARE insured heavily) is injured. Therefore there are not strong deterrents enshrined into law to protect life. The main focus is to protect the dollars of the insurers.
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