4-13-2007

Talk about a neighborhood watch. Some passersby helped bring down an armed robber today in North Portland.

About 10:30 this morning we got word of a potential armed robbery at north Killingsworth and Montana (right off of I-5). When I got there, the police had sealed off a 3 block by 3 block perimeter and were actively searching for a potentially armed suspect in the area.

I had a chance to speak with the victim himself, Mr Polo Hernandez. He runs a store on Killingsworth and told me that three masked men burst into his shop that morning waving guns. They robbed him and then took off on foot .... Hernandez says this isn't the FIRST time he's been robbed but this time was particularly terrifying because his family (including young children) were in the building at the time.

As soon as the three thieves ran off, Hernandez chased after them with a club. THIS is where the neighborhood watch comes in. According to police reports . . . Some passers by noticed a man chasing three masked people down the street waving a club ... and they thought it looked SUSPICIOUS. They helped tackle and detain one suspect until cops could arrive.

The other two fled into the nearby neighborhood. Cops grabbed suspect number two shortly after the initial robbery (he was sitting in a vehicle). Suspect number three was a bit more difficult to find.

As I mentioned, I was originally staged at Killingsowrth and Montana but was told there would be a media update at North Jarret and Interstate (two blocks over and two blocks down).

When I got there, Sgt Brian Schmautz updated the situation . . . that they had set up a three block perimeter and were currently going through with K-9 units.

This is where things started to get tense. Officers started converging around this one house on the corner. Dog teams would go in the backyard, then come back out. Officers patrolled with machine guns and rifles at the ready. It was almost eerie the way they focused on that ONE house.

About 12:20 (two hours after this whole thing started), all of a sudden I see two young women walking out of the front door of the house. At FIRST, I didn't think much of it . . . whenever they have a stand off or perimeter search officers tend to evacuate certain residents (especially if there's a chance a suspect could run into their home).

That impression lasted, maybe 30 seconds. Immediately behind these two women walked a young man (late teens or early twenties) . . . with his hands up. Cops surrounded him as soon as he got outside, searched him, cuffed him and pulled him to a squad car.

Suspect number three ... taken into custody without incident (never did find out who the two girls were or IF that was his house or if they knew each other) ... you can see footage of his arrest on KXL.com