The driver of this Subaru killed someone walking across SE Powell. Let’s find them

black and weight photos from a surveillance video show a car turning around in a parking lot
(Source: Portland Police Bureau)

Please be on the lookout for this dark gray Subaru (Impreza or Crosstrek).

Detectives in the PPB’s Traffic Investigations Unit are working on a case where the driver of this car hit 47-year-old Angela Boyd on the evening of Monday, April 4th as she tried to walk cross the 4600 block of Southeast Powell Blvd. The impact was so severe that Ms. Boyd did not survive.

The driver was headed eastbound and the collision happened near Creston Park. In a surveillance video shared by the police today (below), the driver can be see pulling into the parking lot of SmartStop Self Storage at 4836 SE Powell Blvd. As the driver turned the vehicle around, you can see significant damage to the front grill.

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If you saw anything or if you know the whereabouts of this vehicle or its driver, please contact crimetips@portlandoregon.gov and reference case number 22-90144, or call (503) 823-2103.

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

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Steve C
Steve C
2 years ago

Doesn’t Subaru install telematics/infotainment in their cars? Seems like they would need to know where their cars were (specifically which cell towers they car connected to) at any given time.

Charley
Charley
2 years ago

That’s horrific.

Given the fact that it’s a Subaru and it’s got a ski/snowboard box on top, seems like the ski areas would be good places to look.

Amit Zinman
2 years ago
Reply to  Charley

In Portland, that doesn’t mean a lot. Lots of people ski for fun, other have that box simply to carry stuff in it.

Chris I
Chris I
2 years ago
Reply to  Amit Zinman

And a big chunk of people just kind of throw them on “just in case” and they sit empty 99% of the year. I bought a roof box off of a friend a few years back. She admitted that it was on her car for 6 years and she had never used it.

It takes just a few minutes to remove the roof top box, but that front end damage can’t be hidden. Someone knows the owner of this car.

cc_rider
cc_rider
2 years ago

PPB should contact ReRack and Rack Attack. They probably have a short list of what rack that is. It looks like it might have a wing in the back. Those rims are either a crosstrek or from a a mid 2010s WRX. I’m pretty sure the standard impreza comes with silver rims and who would bother upgrading NA Impreza rims?

James Calhoon
James Calhoon
2 years ago
Reply to  cc_rider

It is a Crosstrek. determining year is hard on this model. But after looking the video I would say it is a 2015 or older. In 2016 and newer the bezel around the fog lights are black. Prior to this they were body color. I tried to narrow down the year using the wheels but could not. My guess is that they were painted all black. I found a 2014 for sale on Craig’s List with all factory wheels that were all black but they didn’t come from the factory that way.

esther
esther
2 years ago

This driver has a neighbor or an acquaintance that will notice that they removed their ski box and that they have front end damage.

Racer X
Racer X
2 years ago

Looking at the video and video stills, it looks like there is still debris [or even the pedestrian/ jacket?] on the front of the car when they turned into the parking lot..

Martika Jones
Martika Jones
2 years ago

Terrible! Not surprising though given the climate of lawlessness in Portland. Good chance they won’t be caught which is very sad. Life has become cheap in PDX.

Norman
Norman
2 years ago
Reply to  Martika Jones

Being willing to look into the underlying cause of why this type of violence is happening more often is not grandstanding.

Watts
Watts
2 years ago
Reply to  Norman

And yet… if a driver thinks they won’t get caught driving away because law enforcement and prosecution has collapsed, they’ll be more likely to take the risk of running. So perhaps the sense of lawlessness does play a role in how people behave.

What I’m going to do about it is vote for leaders I think might actually help get us back on track. What are you going to do?

Steve
Steve
2 years ago
Reply to  Watts

“And yet… if a driver thinks they won’t get caught driving away because law enforcement and prosecution has collapsed, they’ll be more likely to take the risk of running.”

How do you know that? Do you have any data on the rate of hit and runs in “collapsed” versus “non-collapsed” law enforcement and prosecution settings? Was law enforcement for hit and runs “collapsed” when it showed up at Hardesty’s house?

Chris I
Chris I
2 years ago
Reply to  Martika Jones

These type of hit and run crashes have been around as long as cars have existed. Cars make it too easy to flee your responsibilities (isolation from the outside world, etc). Hit and runs like this have always been an issue, and have more to do with drinking than with anything else.

Amit Zinman
2 years ago

This is very close to where I live, an area north of Powell that was indeed developed only with cars in mind, risking pedestrian and cyclists’ lives 🙁

Columbo
Columbo
2 years ago

Driver checked high/low beams while stopped at about 15 seconds in the video. Didn’t want to get stopped for broken headlight.

I’d pull it in my garage, go get some tin snips, and start snipping the car body into small pieces, while wearing gloves of course. Then start scattering them around for the next several years. Ditto seats, plastic parts, carpets, etc. Then start unbolting the rest of it, and cutting up the pieces and disposing of them. Maybe take up fishing as a hobby. NAH, not really, that would take a long time and your fingerprints would be all over it.

I doubt they will get away with it. Going to be hard to hide that much damage unless they are from south of the border and know someone with a box truck or salvage company willing to haul it to a chop shop. Unless their driveway is totally obscured by shrubbery, someone will see that car. And their friends will be asking “Where’s your car?”.

Columbo
Columbo
2 years ago
Reply to  Columbo

WAIT! April 4? That was over 3 weeks ago! They may get away with it after all if it’s been this long.

Chris I
Chris I
2 years ago
Reply to  Columbo

Not a WRX in the above video. Definitely a Crosstrek.

Watts
Watts
2 years ago

Now that we’ve entered the naming-random-people phase of the “investigation”, it seems appropriate to remind folks of this episode:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/theweek.com/articles/465307/4-innocent-people-wrongly-accused-being-boston-marathon-bombing-suspects%3famp

J_R
J_R
2 years ago

The astounding part of this to me is that the collision and death occurred FOUR WEEKS ago! Only now is the PPB asking for help.

Racer X
Racer X
2 years ago
Reply to  J_R

Just speculation here: perhaps the PPB waited this long to make it more of a challenge to find the driver perpetrator…and now hit and runner too?

Watts
Watts
2 years ago
Reply to  Racer X

Just some speculation here as well… the cops aren’t totally stupid (or totally evil), and may have some reasons for doing what they do.

Why not frame your comment as an inquiry rather than accusation? Maybe we’d all learn something interesting and useful.

Steve Scarich
Steve Scarich
2 years ago

Yes, as a former Private Investigator, the #1 mistake that you can make is letting a ‘suspect’ know that he/she is under investigation. They can do so much in a short time to cover their tracks; sell or hide the vehicle, remove the distinctive features (rims, box, body parts). This is almost a ‘one of a kind’ rig, even in a big area like PDX. I bet there are less than five vehicles that have all the distinctive features. It would really surprise me if a neighbor, or acquaintance, does not turn in the driver.

Nadia P.
Nadia P.
2 years ago

Time to restore the PPB traffic division. DIY law enforcement is not working.

Steve C
Steve C
2 years ago
Reply to  Nadia P.

We need unarmed, specialized traffic officers: just simply ticket people for traffic and vehicle violations. Remove the danger of armed police checking warrant or pretextual stops. If traffic safety is the issue, address traffic safety specifically and economically. We have cops doing a thousand and one different public safety jobs, all poorly and at incredible expense. Free up officers to do real police work, improve response times.

soren
2 years ago
Reply to  Steve C

Remove the danger of armed police checking warrant or pretextual stops.

Perhaps this could lessen the danger of being murdered by a city employee but it would not remove the danger of being racially profiled during a pretextual stop.

Steve C
Steve C
2 years ago
Reply to  soren

If they are not charged with checking warrants or for drugs, etc. (just like a toll booth worker, a city registrar, or any other government employee that interacts with the public) then there is no pretext for a exploratory stop. Speeding or driving erratically? Get a ticket and go on your way, just as you would pay a parking fine. I suppose it depends on your definition of a pretext stop, but I’m specifically arguing for a reduction in the purview of traffic enforcement officers to just traffic enforcement. And since the common description of a pretext stop is one where a simple traffic stop escalates to a criminal fishing investigation, those types of pretext would be obviated.

I’m not claiming it would solve racial profiling in regards to traffic stops. But it would certainly reduce the unnecessary interaction between not only POCs but also the public in general and police. And I do think it will be easier to train and audit for racial profiling if traffic enforcement is specialized and professionalized. It makes the statistical analysis much more clear cut for those auditing stop data.

But to be clear, this is coming from a place of harm reduction not particularly an end solution to state sanctioned violence.

Watts
Watts
2 years ago
Reply to  Steve C

the purview of traffic enforcement officers to just traffic enforcement.

You are describing the Traffic Division, whose stop data suggest conducted traffic enforcement without racial bias. I’m sure if Soren disagrees he’ll provide some analysis to support his position.