Police seek public's help solving bias crimes
PORTLAND, Ore. – Police are asking for the public’s help solving two assaults that police said were bias crimes.
The assaults happened in 2011 and 2010. Police do not believe they are related.
Victim left unconscious on train tracks
The first assault happened just after midnight on Nov. 1, 2010. Police said 49-year-old Timothy McCubbin was attacked near the pedestrian overpass at Southeast 16th Avenue and Brooklyn Street.
The suspect left McCubbin on the train tracks just below the overpass with serious head and abdominal injuries.
Detectives believe the suspect’s perception of McCubbin’s sexual orientation caused him to attack McCubbin.
The suspect is described as a white man in 20s who is about 6’1’’ tall with a muscular build.
Police said he has short, blonde hair and a light beard. He also has a light complexion and freckles on his face.
The suspect was riding a bicycle with another man who was also on a bicycle.
Police released a sketch of the suspect (above).
Two men attacked near Eastbank Esplanade
The second assault happened on May 22, 2011 at around 8:30 p.m. Police said Brad Forkner, 23, and Christopher Rosevear, 25, were attacked by at least three men as they walked from the Hawthorne Bridge to the Eastbank Esplanade.
Forkner and Rosevear walked onto the Esplanade when several suspects punched and pushed Forkner. Police said he broke away and called 9-1-1 while the suspects continued to attack Rosevear.
“It was obvious the only reason we were attacked is because we were holding hands,” Rosevear told KATU in May of 2011.
The victims believed the suspects were speaking an Eastern European language.
The suspects were described as white men in their 20s. Police said all three were about 5’11’’ tall. One wore a blue hooded sweatshirt, another wore a cream or white-colored hooded sweatshirt and a third wore a brown hooded sweatshirt.
They were last seen running southbound on the Esplanade.
Crime Stoppers is offering a cash reward of up to $1,000 for information that leads to an arrest in these cases, or any unsolved felony, and you can remain anonymous. Call Crime Stoppers at 503-823-HELP (4357) or leave a tip online.
These crimes are from one to two years ago. Can't imagine many clues will turn up at this late date.
It's no more important than any other crime against a person. Â The media along with the Hollywood crowd just want to make a mountain out of a mole hill because the people assaulted were gays. Â I have no use for gays, but I don't go around beating them up. Â I will bet on one thing. Â It will get much worse before it gets better and no amount of media BS will change that.
And people wonder why i carry a gun. Its sad that the gay community cant understand good reasoning behind carrying and training with personal defense weapons. I guess these types of attacks would take a quick end when one of these dirtbags gets cleaned up off the ground.
@commonsense33 I second that.Working downtown,walking into a empty parking garage,I'm always on my guard with my hand on my .380
@noneofyourbizzness I truely believe that the lib type are more afraid of arming and protecting themselves, than they are of being attacked. I guess that's the difference between the sheep and the sheepdog mentality.
@flyroy Actually,I'm a proud member of the armed left.There are more of us out there than a lot of people realize.
I hope they catch this human strawberry and his freaky friends asap.
Although the chances are slim, I hope someone can provide enough details to make an arrest and hold the violent attackers accountable to the full extent of the law.
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Not wanting to be insensitive, is a "bias crime" a new way of saying "hate crime"? Maybe it's a common phrase and I'm out of touch.
They do seem to be rephrasing it. It still means the same thing. They will enhance sentencing based on percieved motive rather than the criminal act. It applies bias to bias, because two wrongs make it less wrong?
 @DeaconBugg ~  I was wondering the same thing, DeaconBugg...  either way, and whatever you call them, these kinds of attacks are just disgusting..!
No, just a way to create more bias in society by inventing a new class of crime - no different in any way than any other assault (for example) than another. Its sole purpose is for making a minority feel better. A victim is a victim. So if we have two victims of a mugging - do you persue the criminals who committed the cime against the gay person(s) or the straight person(s)? I say that the bias definition tells the law to go after the gay victims perpetrator in a more agressive nature and that prosecuters will go to trial for a so called minority victim before they will a straight victim. It is a judiciary run amok. In trying to help the minority population they have created, via the judiali system. wholesale discrimination on anyone not. Its nothing new - the judiciary creating "protected" classes is the major reason we have an ADA monster.
Nah, its just a liberal way of changing titles, but not definitions.