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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 21, 2022)
THE BULLETIN • SUNDAY, AUGUST 21, 2022 A5 Homeless Continued from A1 Jackson said there were too many bullets to count fired toward Hun- nell from the west. While she doesn’t believe the shots were an accident, she doesn’t believe the shooter was necessarily aiming to hit people in the head. “I ducked and started running,” Jackson said. “I went down the street and started telling everybody to get down.” The stretch of Hunnell Road to the west of U.S. Highway 97 between NE Loco Road and Cooley Road on the north side of town is home to a number of homeless individuals who routinely camp in the area. Hunnell Road has drawn support from Bend residents who assist the people camp- ing there as well as ire from others who believe the area has become an eyesore and a safety risk. Bend Police received two 911 calls after the second incident on Aug. 5, about 8:17 p.m., said Sheila Miller, spokesperson for the department. Miller said two police officers spoke to at least one witness, but were un- able to find evidence of the shooting. “We went up there to try and solve it, and that was the end of our role in that,” she said. “We were unable to locate anybody shooting, and that ended our role in that incident.” Miller said police took the calls se- riously and she hopes the campers will report any future incidents. “I would encourage them to reach out to the police department if they feel they are threatened,” she said. Miller said Bend Police regularly receives calls from all over the city for shots fired, and said that unless shots are being actively fired when police Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin Manuel Ortiz points west to where he and other homeless campers on Hunnel Road in Bend say multiple gunshots were fired at them on Aug. 5. Witnesses said shots were first fired at them from the west at around 5:30 p.m. Aug. 5, and then again, between 7:30 and 8 p.m. that day from the northeast, not far from U.S. Highway 97. The first episode was the most intense, striking vehicles and dumpsters and rico- cheting off the street for about 15 minutes, they said. arrive, it could be difficult to prove someone was breaking the law. The land where the shots ap- peared to originate is not within the city limits, according to Deschutes County Property Information. Sgt. Jayson Janes, spokesperson for the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, said it is legal to discharge firearms on the surrounding unincorporated properties around Hunnell Road as long as it is done in a safe manner. Manuel Ortiz, a resident camping on Hunnell Road, said he hopes it was negligence and not an attack on his community. But like his neighbors, he has ques- tions because he’s sure of what he heard. “I’m just sitting here with a friend of mine, and I just hear, zip, zip. I’m like, I know that sound, those are bullets,’’ Ortiz said. “Then I hear ric- ochets.” One of the bullets ricocheted off the street, went through a tarp cov- ering his makeshift dwelling, and hit the fence behind it with a thud, he said. “I heard it punch in the tarp, and I heard the fence. It sounded like somebody kicked it,” Ortiz said. Ortiz said the bullets continued whizzing by and ricocheting. At times, when there was a pause in the shooting, Ortiz thinks someone was reloading. “You could tell he was stopping, taking about two to five minutes to reload this clip, and then hammering it again,” Ortiz said. “And all those bullets were coming this way.” When the shooting resumed hours later, the shots came from another di- rection, about 700 yards away to the northeast, Ortiz said. “I heard the same report from the same weapon coming from over there,” he said, waving his hand to- ward the northeast. Ortiz said he has shot guns all his life and that the sound of a bullet ric- ocheting or whizzing by is unmistak- able. Ortiz doesn’t know who might wander through the area surround- ing Hunnell Road. “It could have been another home- less person, just being negligent with a gun. Because this person did not sound like they were in a hurry,” Or- tiz said. Ortiz said he recovered the bullet that hit the fence behind his home, and said he believes it was fired from a rifle, and that the slug he recovered was a .223 caliber round. “I’m just glad nobody got hit. I’m just glad everybody’s fine,” Ortiz added. “And I hope it was negligence and not a targeted attack.” Hubert Vandeberg, a plumber from California who has served in the military and is not homeless, was on Hunnell Road when the first round of shots was fired around 5:30 p.m. He heard what sounded like a bullet ricocheting off the dumpster across the street. “The next thing you know the bullets start whizzing by our heads,” Vandeberg said. “When you hear bullets whizzing by your head, it’s a particular sound…and you can tell if it is a high caliber or lower caliber by the sound it makes.” Vandeberg said once people on Hunnell Road realized what was hap- pening, everyone sought safety. “We all laid down on the ground, in the tents, wherever,” Vandeberg said. No one was arrested in connection with the shootings, and that troubles Vandeberg. “Right now the guy could do it again,” Vandeberg said. “And proba- bly get away with it.” Allie Blanchard, an outreach worker with the Bend Equity Project, a mutual aid group in Bend that pro- vides outreach to the local homeless population, was on Hunnell the day after the shots were fired. “Most of the residents we talked to believe that it was a nearby prop- erty owner, and there were multiple bullets found in the area,” Blanchard said. “It is absolutely disgusting that someone can fire into a camp of peo- ple without repercussion.” Elizabeth Wilson, the chair of the Homeless Leadership Coalition, which organizes assistance and ser- vices for the homeless in Central Or- egon, said she had not heard of the shooting on Hunnell but that she would seek to learn more. Wilson, who was once homeless, said she understands the situation on a personal level. She added while homelessness is something visible and uncomfortable for people, “we can’t respond in retaliation, we need to help.” “There is sometimes misplaced fear and misunderstanding related to people who are experiencing house- lessness but as people, we all have the same need for community and basic needs,” Wilson said. “Every member of our community deserves to feel safe regardless of their housing sta- tus.” █ jsiess@bendbulletin.com, 541-617-7820 Dorli Rainey, symbol of Occupy movement, dies at 95 Associated Press SEATTLE — Dorli Rainey, a self-described “old lady in combat boots” who became a symbol of the Occupy pro- test movement when she was photographed after being pep- per-sprayed by Seattle police, has died. She was 95. The longtime political ac- tivist died Aug. 12, the Seattle Times reported. Her daugh- ter, Gabriele Rainey, told the newspaper her mom was “so active because she loved this country, and she wanted to make sure that the country was good to its people.” Rainey was a fixture in the local progressive movement for decades, demonstrating for racial justice, affordable hous- ing and public transit, and against war, nuclear weapons and big banks. In November 2011, in the early days of the Occupy Wall Street movement, Rainey, then 84, joined protesters in block- ing downtown intersections. She was hit when Seattle po- lice used pepper spray to clear the crowd. Fellow protesters poured milk over her face to ease the sting, and a seattlepi. com photographer, Joshua Trujillo, captured a stunning image of her staring defiantly into the camera, her eyes red and milk dripping off her face. The photo become a world- wide symbol for the protest movement. She was profiled by The Washington Post, The At- lantic, The Associated Press and The Guardian. “It’s a gruesome picture,” she told the AP. “I’m really not that bad looking.” Dorli Rainey, at 84, who was pep- per-sprayed by police while tak- ing part in an Oc- cupy Seattle pro- test, smiles before speaking Nov. 18, 2011, in front of po- lice headquarters in downtown Seattle. Ted S. Warren/AP
