A4 THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, JULY 21, 2022
Death
Masks
Continued from A1
Continued from A1
After about 100 yards, bullets lose their straight-line tra-
jectory and speed. The shot’s odds were longer than find-
ing a winning lottery ticket, said Deschutes County Dis-
trict Attorney John Hummel.
“The bullet went through trees,” Hummel said. “The
odds are one in many millions.”
Ray was living in his car near Stevens Road and 27th
Street when he was arrested about 5:30 a.m. Wednesday.
He was released after being ticketed for the Class B mis-
demeanor of negligent wounding, according to a release
from sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Troy Gotchy.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Ray had not been charged
in circuit court.
The shooting took place around 2 p.m. June 30 on Bu-
reau of Land Management land off Alfalfa Market Road,
4miles east of Bend.
Martell, 53, and a friend had been camping near a berm
that had served as target practice for many years, as evi-
denced by numerous bullet casings scattered around the
area.
“That’s a place where many people go to shoot. They’ve
probably been shooting into that berm for generations in
Deschutes County,” Hummel said.
Deputies and medics arrived to find Martell dead with
a gunshot wound. The shooter had left by this point, and a
man who’d been camping with Martell provided deputies
with a description of a man in his 30s who drove a small
white SUV or crossover vehicle. The sheriff’s office put
out a public call for help locating him.
The witness told deputies he and Martell had heard
shooting and gone to tell the shooter to stop. As they
walked through a small stand of trees, Martell was struck,
though authorities have not disclosed where on Martell’s
body he was struck.
Hummel said he will review the case and possibly take
it to a grand jury, which could approve more serious
charges.
“The shooter never saw them,” Hummel said. “The
question is, was it a crime to pull that trigger? Was it crim-
inally negligent? The police have made their call. Now I
have to make my call.”
According to Martell’s father, who spoke to The Bulletin
Wednesday, his son had camped in his motor home on
public land outside Bend for about five years, relocating
regularly as required by law.
“All we know is it was a stray shot, and he was in the
wrong place at the wrong time,” said Neil R. Martell.
A native of Massachusetts, Neil J. Martell was a Navy
submariner on the USS Tautog and a trained chef who
worked spells at Walt Disney World. He worked the kitch-
ens of restaurants and retirement homes across Massachu-
setts, California and in Bend.
He was married in Carpinteria, California, and moved
to Bend with his wife, who had friends and family in the
area. After a divorce, he opted to retreat to a simpler life
in his RV. He got by collecting cans near the put-ins of the
Deschutes River. He liked not having a boss, said his fa-
ther, a retired high school Spanish teacher.
“Our son marched to a different beat,” said Neil R. Mar-
tell. “He was out there, more or less by himself, and that’s
what he liked. He preferred to be his own boss. And he
was happy. He didn’t have to answer to anybody.”
The state reported 424 people hospital-
ized with COVID-19 Wednesday, down
from 458 one week ago. The peak of the
current surge was expected to arrive July 12,
at 479 occupied beds, according to an Ore-
gon Health & Sciences University forecast.
In light of the strain on Oregon’s hospi-
tal system, Sidelinger asked Oregonians to
wear masks in indoor public spaces, par-
ticularly those in counties with high levels
of spread, those at high risk of severe dis-
ease or those living with others at high risk.
Using some of the strongest language
during this surge, Sidelinger also suggested
people reconsider summer plans to pro-
tect themselves and others during what he
called “this extremely challenging time.”
Central Oregon hospitals have been par-
ticularly hard-hit, Sidelinger said, citing
the St. Charles Health System in Bend, in
particular.
Of Oregon’s 36 counties, 21 have been
listed by the Centers for Disease and Con-
trol and Prevention at high levels of com-
munity spread. That designation is based
on hospitalizations, hospital admissions
and new case numbers. They include the
three Portland-area counties.
Everyone in those counties should be
wearing a mask when in an indoor public
space, Sidelinger said.
█
Reporter: 541-383-0325, gandrews@bendbulletin.com
Psilocybin
Continued from A1
Commissioner Phil Chang,
who voted against the ordi-
nance, argued that the county
was wasting its time and tax-
payer money by placing the
measure on the ballot, noting
that Deschutes County res-
idents voted 52.8% in favor
of Measure 109 in 2020 and
would likely do so again.
Commissioner Patti Adair,
who voted in favor of the ordi-
nance, voiced general concerns
about how psilocybin facilities
could fuel illicit drug activity
at a time when Measure 110
decriminalized drugs like psi-
locybin.
Last week, at least 20 people
from across the county, state
and other states, voiced sup-
port in a public hearing about
psilocybin therapy, including
doctors, mental health counsel-
ors, students, veterans, business
Gillian Flaccus/AP file
A sign reminds customers to wear their masks at a bakery in Lake Oswego in May 2021. State
health officials on Wednesday urged Oregonians in 21 counties with high COVID-19 case rates
and hospitalizations to wear masks again.
In Central Oregon, Crook, Deschutes
and Jefferson counties remain at medium
levels of community spread. The CDC
listed all three counties at high levels for
about a week early this month. The agency
generally updates its community levels for
owners and other residents.
Since then, Chang said he
has received additional phone
calls and email supporting the
drug’s therapeutic use, tallying
at least 75 people reaching out
in favor and less than 10 who
were opposed. This support
makes Chang “confident” that
the ballot measure would fail in
the fall election.
“It will cost us legal time. It
will cost us county clerk time.
It will cost us community de-
velopment to pursue an opt-
out ballot measure,” Chang
said. “Instead, we could be tak-
ing those resources and apply-
ing them to the development of
time, place and manner regula-
tions so that we can safely and
effectively regulate access to
these therapeutic treatments.”
But Adair said she was con-
cerned that the state was devel-
oping rules too slowly and said
that the facilitators of psilocy-
bin therapy “are not required to
counties on Thursdays.
Despite the warnings, Sidelinger said
he expects hospitalizations to plateau over
the coming days or week before declining.
And mask mandates will remain a local,
not a state-level, decision.
be licensed medical or mental
health professionals.”
In addition, Adair voiced
general concerns that with psi-
locybin facilities in unincor-
porated Deschutes County, the
illicit drug market could “be
perhaps flooded with (psilo-
cybin).” She likened the legal-
ization to that of marijuana,
saying that legalizing the drug
in 2014 did not stop cartel ac-
tivity.
“We know the cartel is here,”
she said.
Chang pushed back against
Adair’s claims, saying there is
a lack of evidence to substan-
tiate that the drugs fuel the
black market. He also argued
that the wide array of experts
who came out in support of the
drug in the public hearing last
week showed there are ample
trained professionals willing to
administer the drug safely.
“On both of those fronts,
that this is going to contribute
to black market production, or
that we will have people that
are unqualified to administer
psilocybin, I don’t think that
those are valid arguments,” he
said.
Chang said that, if the
county started its work imme-
diately, it could develop strong
regulations around psilocybin
that would address DeBone
and Adair’s concerns, a respon-
sibility that the state has left to
the county’s control.
Deschutes County is not
the only one in Central Ore-
gon that is weighing psilocybin
therapy.
Crook County officials are
drafting an ordinance that
would ask voters if they want a
permanent ban on psilocybin
treatment, and county officials
will decide Aug. 3 whether to
place the ordinance on the bal-
lot.
█
Reporter: 541-617-7854, bdole@
bendbulletin.com
Plan your 2023 Getaway!
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APRIL 30-MAY 6, 2023
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Lunch at Goulding’s Lodge
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