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