Portland Police say three men stretched woven string across the I-205 path last night in an intentional act that caused an injury to a bicycle rider.
Here’s more from the statement just released by the PPB:
On Friday, November 9, 2018, at 10:53 p.m., East Precinct officers responded to the report a bicyclist was injured as a result of a boobytrap that was erected across the Interstate 205 Multi-Use Path near Southeast Division Street.
Officers and emergency medical personnel arrived and located an injured adult female. Emergency medical responders provided the victim on scene medical treatment. Officers learned the victim was traveling north while riding her bicycle on the Interstate 205 Multi-Use Path when she became entangled and injured by material strung across the path.
As an officer canvased the area, he located woven string that spanned the path just south of Southeast Division Street. During the investigation, officers also located three suspects believed to have positioned the woven string across the path. The three suspects were taken into custody without incident.
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Police arrested 23-year-old Justin J. Jones, 27-year-old Justin R. Tolman-Duran, and 21-year-old Dakota E. Murphy. All three were booked into jail (and have since been released) on charges of Assault in the Fourth Degree and three counts of Reckless Endangering.
This is not the first time bicycle riders have faced human-caused hazards on the 205 path. In July 2017 a man was the victim of verbal and vehicular assault when a another man drove his car onto the path about 1.3 miles south of Division.
And we’ve seen similar trip-wire incidents in several other locations. In September 2017 we reported on wires placed across a trail in Gateway Green and a cross an intersection in northeast Portland. In 2014 the Portland Police Bomb Squad responded to a wire strung across a public trail near private homes in Forest Park. In 2010 someone strung a trip-wire across a street next to Ladd Circle, a location where neighbors had complained about bicycle users not obeying a stop sign.
If you come across something on a path or in a park that appears to be a booby trap, call Portland Park Rangers at (503) 823-1637 or the PPB’s non-emergency line at (503) 823-3333. Call 911 if there’s an immediate safety hazard or if you see a crime in progress.
(P.S. If you’re paying attention, behavior like this should not be a surprise. When we allow hate toward bicycle users to become normalized (as it is in comment sections in every local media outlet), this is one way it manifests. It might be fun/funny for some people to wish injury (even death) upon other people for no other reason than riding a bicycle; but it’s not funny at all when those feelings are acted upon.)
UPDATE, 12:05pm: The victim is Montavilla resident Carlene Ostedegaard. According to her partner, she was riding home from work (on Foster) when it happened. The location was just south of the Division MAX stop. “It was a couple passes of twine or thin rope at about the face/neck level,” Ostedegaard’s friend told me.
She was riding north and saw the three men run up a hill.
Here are photos of her injuries:
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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