When he stepped outside his house on Aug. 28, Robert Rothery said he could hear guns being fired in the Roseway neighborhood. The air was thick with the smell of burning rubber, and the noise from cars and motorcycles racing near his home was so loud that he and his neighbors had to yell to hear each other.
An illegal street takeover had transformed the intersection of Northeast Sandy Boulevard, 72nd Avenue and Fremont Street from a commercial stretch to a dangerous speedway.
Rothery, 63, said he called 911 twice and was told both times that Portland police were aware of the takeover but were not responding. One dispatcher told him they were having a busy night, but to call back if he heard “anyone screaming for help,” he said.
“I was just really upset by the fact that the police didn’t seem to care,” he said. “I understand that when something is that big, a couple of cops showing up is probably going to make it worse, not better – but I’m concerned about what the city is going to do about this.”
A year after enacting an emergency ordinance aimed at cracking down on street racing and takeovers, Portland still struggles to contain the illegal events, which can draw hundreds of spectators who block major roads, including Interstate 84, the Burnside Bridge, the Sunset Highway Tunnel and the Fremont Bridge, endangering participants and bystanders. The events have left two people dead and injured at least eight others since August 2021.
Ashlee Diane McGill, 26, was struck by an “out of control” street racer at around 5:30 a.m. on Aug. 27. The driver who hit her was racing another car on Southeast Stark Street near 133rd Avenue, police said. McGill’s mother, Misty Nicholson, told KATU that her daughter was waiting for a bus when the car leapt the curb and struck her. McGill had a 6-year-old son, Nicholson said.
Cameron Taylor, 20, of Vancouver was killed the next day after he was struck by a stray bullet at an illegal street racing event. According to a family friend, Taylor was in a crowd of hundreds at North Marine Drive and Interstate 5 to “check out all the cars” when he was shot. A friend got Taylor into their car and tried to take him to get help, but he died on the way, police said.
Two others suffered gunshot wounds during the same event.
Since 2015, at least seven people have been killed in street-racing related incidents, and more injured – including an 11-year-old boy injured by gunfire in March and an 18-year-old woman in a coma after being hit by a racer in 2018.
The 2021 ordinance revised city code to make street racing or takeovers misdemeanor offenses, punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine. Since then, Portland police have partnered with the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office and Oregon State Police on multiple “speed racing missions.” Mayor Ted Wheeler said in a written statement that the city has “seen success,” noting that Portland police have made 21 arrests, conducted 50 traffic stops, confiscated three guns and towed 10 vehicles associated with illegal street racing.
Lt. Nathan Sheppard, a spokesperson for the police bureau, said the city ordinance has been a valuable tool. But multiple factors – including that some of the participants are armed with guns — make it difficult for officers to respond.
The events sometimes happen in multiple locations at once — KGW reported three separate takeovers on Aug. 28, for example — and they draw hundreds of people in cars that block the roads, making them “nearly impossible” to reach, Sheppard said.
“People often think about this as a traffic issue, but it’s also a crowd control issue, and we can’t just send in a few officers,” Sheppard said.
He also cited a police staffing shortage. The bureau has 114 fewer sworn officers today than it had in 2020, according to its staffing data.
But Wheeler publicly pushed back at a similar assertion by Police Chief Chuck Lovell at an Aug. 31 city council session, when the mayor let an expletive fly after Lovell said low police staffing was keeping officers from adequately responding to street racing and other crime.
“I think we should stop using the messaging at every turn, that the reason we can’t help our citizens with basic criminal justice issues is because we don’t have the personnel,” Wheeler said. “Bullshit! We’ve got to figure out better ways to address this crisis. We have to be innovative.”
Back in the Roseway neighborhood last month, when a 911 dispatcher told Rothery police wouldn’t come, someone did need help.
A man who had gone to watch the street takeover Aug. 28 at the intersection of Northeast 72nd Avenue and Sandy Boulevard was attacked and knocked unconscious after trying to film the commotion with his phone, witnesses told KGW. Dispatchers told a woman who called 911 that an ambulance would be delayed due to parked cars, KGW reported.
Rothery lives around the corner from where the attack happened and said illegal street takeovers have happened twice in the three months he has lived there.
He said he went to the police headquarters downtown to speak to somebody about the Aug. 28 takeover the next day but was told by an officer to speak with the mayor’s office. When he went to city hall, a person at the front desk said there wasn’t anyone available to take his complaint.
Rothery said he has left voicemails with the mayor’s office, but hasn’t received a call back yet.
“I keep reading that the mayor’s office is concerned, the city is concerned, the police are concerned,” Rother says. “Nothing is getting done.”
— Catalina Gaitán; cgaitan@oregonlive.com; @catalinagaitan_
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