PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — What began as a pursuit of a stolen Ford ended with a 23-year-old connected with 2 Portland gangs heading to federal prison for more than 3 years.
Christopher Raymond Fox-Southard, who has a previous felony conviction on his record, was sentenced Tuesday to 40 months in prison plus 3 years of supervised release for having a short-barrel shotgun in an incident that happened on March 9, 2021.
That day, Multnomah County deputies spotted a driver crossing over the center line and driving toward oncoming traffic while traveling through Fairview and Wood Village. The driver of the Ford Escape didn’t stop when the deputy tried to pull them over near NE 238th Drive and SE Stark Street, and they pursued the driver toward Gresham.
The US Attorney’s Office said there were 3 people in the Ford, including Fox-Southard as a passenger.
When the Ford was found, no one was inside. But Fox-Southard was spotted in a nearby parking lot. Deputies searched the area and found “a stolen, short-barreled shotgun abandoned in a stairwell,” officials said. On video, he was seen taking the shotgun out of his backpack and toss it in the stairwell.
He was arrested that day, indicted by a federal grand jury 2 months later, and pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm in November 2021.
Fox-Southard is affiliated with both the Hoover Criminal Gang and Krude Rude Brood, the US Attorney’s Office said in a release.