Homeless Man Killed Downtown Portland

Sgt. Brian Schmautz
Public Information Office
Phone: (503) 823-0010
Pager: 790-1779 January 24, 2006

NEWS RELEASE

SUSPECT ARRESTED IN
DOWNTOWN MURDER INVESTIGATION

On Monday, January 23, 2006, at 10:10 p.m., Central Precinct discovered the body of 42-year-old Christopher Darryl John Carter on the sidewalk near Southwest 12th Avenue and Southwest Alder Street. Police responded after receiving reports of an injured man in need of medical attention. Carter's body had signs of sharp force trauma leading officers to believe he had been the victim of a homicide. Detectives were called to the scene to initiate an investigation.

While waiting for detectives to arrive, officers spoke with witnesses who described a possible suspect who had been seen with the victim prior to the assault. After receiving the possible suspect information, an officer contacted 45-year-old Richard Paul Koehrsen a few blocks away from the scene of the assault. Immediately after contacting Koehrsen, officers observed clear evidence that he had been involved in a dispute. Officers detained Koehrsen, who has now been charged with one count of Murder in connection with the death of the victim and booked into the Justice Center Jail.

An autopsy conducted by the Multnomah County Medical Examiner has determined that the victim died of an incised wound to the neck and confirmed that the death was a homicide. Detectives are continuing the investigation and are seeking information from anyone who may have seen any portion of the assault or know either the suspect or victim. Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Rich Austria at (503) 823-0449 or Detective Ken Whattam at (503) 823-0696.

This investigation is continuing.

###PPB###

LESS THAN 5 MONTHS AGO THERE WAS A SCANDAL GOING AROUND THE
CORPORATE MEDIA ABOUT WEBPAGES DEVOTED TO YOUTH BEATING UP
HOMELESS PEOPLE WHILE VIDEOTAPING THE WHOLE EVENT IN EVERY
CITY IN THE NATION.

IT LASTED ONE VERY SHORT SPINCYCLE AND THEN ENDED AT THAT.
CAME AND WENT. PHENOMENON GONE, YOU MIGHT THINK.

SOMEONE NEEDS TO CONNECT ALL THE DOTS AND KEEP THEM CONNECTED
WHILE MAKING SURE THE CORPORATE MEDIA COVERS THIS ISSUE COMPREHENSIVELY.

 http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/oct04/267967.asp
 http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/12/homeless.beatings.ap
 link to www.sun-sentinel.com
 http://www.officer.com/article/article.jsp?siteSection=1&id=28045
 http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/feb05/302319.asp


(The mke journal ones try to get email address and statistics and
stuff as a requisite, so I'm clipping a few paragraphs here in fair
use for anyone who cannot or will not give up that info...)

__________________________________________________


Rex Baum, 49, who had been living at a makeshift camp in a clearing behind a wooded area west of some railroad tracks at 100 E. Lincoln Ave., was found dead Oct. 12, according to police. His body had been covered with plastic anchored by rocks and bricks. The medical examiner's report said he died of multiple blunt force trauma. He had suffered abrasions, massive contusions and a stab wound.

Charged in Baum's death were Andrew Phillip Ihrcke, 17, of the 500 block of E. Potter Ave.; Luis Oyola, 16, of the 1200 block of E. Potter Ave.; and Nathan Moore, 15, of the 4200 block of N. 27th St. They are being held in detention.

According to the criminal complaint, the boys gave this description of what happened:

On Oct. 10, the three were walking around with no specific plans. Ihrcke told police they walked down a hill through a "forest to where the bum lived." ...

-- Georgia Pabst

 http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/oct04/267967.asp




__________________________________________


Ever since the shocking beating death of Charlie Young Jr. in 2002, mob beating has become shorthand for any incident in the central city that featured a large number of people beating a person.

Maybe it's time to expand that definition.

When a spate of mob beatings erupted in 2004 - a mentally ill 54-year-old beaten and robbed by a group of young black men, a 14-year-old boy beaten into a coma by a similar mob and a man beaten and thrown into the path of a bus - we wrung our collective hands and wondered what was wrong with our society.

-- Eugene Kane

 http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/feb05/302319.asp

arrested on attempted murder charges after they beat up a man who was chosen at random, videotaping the planning and the attack "almost like a documentary

 http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/01/24/D8FB480O9.html


A girl who was 14 when she took part in a "happy slapping" attack in which a man was beaten to death was jailed for eight years yesterday.

Chelsea O'Mahoney filmed her friends on her mobile phone as they battered David Morley. She then ran at the bar manager and "kicked his head like a football".

 link to www.telegraph.co.uk

I live a block away from where this incident occurred. I walk by SW 12th and Alder on a daily basis. and could have easily walked by right when the incident occurred [Jan. 23rd at 10pm]. The Ma and Pa Market is frequented by many homeless folks on that corner. And I have noticed an increase in the amount of people sleeping on or around my neighborhood [12th and Stark]. .. It has caused a good deal of distress for me, mostly because I want to do something, like help. And I don't really know where to start without being a privileged person coming in to 'save the homeless people'. When I saw the damp cement that was used to wash the bloody body of Christopher Carter I felt a pain, mostly due to remorse and also just the entire environment felt like it had changed. People are killing people. Men are killing men. Homeless people are killing other homeless people. Maybe over drugs, or money, or food. Maybe over nothing at all... a slip of the tongue. A white man killed a black man, a man who had only lived to be 42. He deserved to live now, and for many more years. I am just one person who cares, and I never met Christopher.. but I bet I've seen him on the streets. Our neighborhood. The place that once felt safe and good. And now because of one man's actions these streets feel cold, sad, and full of fear. I drew Christopher a little memorial sign out of cardboard, I don't have much time to do these things, but he is important and deserves to be remembered.. even if it just by one person and even if it is just for a short amount of time. I'm aware tht there are many injustices in this world, and I refuse to look away until justice has been brought to this humyn being. Just because Christopher was homeless does not mean that he doesn't deserve to feel safe [safe like me]. I hope others will visit the site where he died and remember to think about the people who live on the streets. Christopher Carter, murdered on January 23rd, 2006:

http://www.katu.com/news/images/story2006/060124_christopher_carter_210.jpg

suspected murderer, Richard Koehrson:

http://www.katu.com/news/images/story2006/060124_richard_koehrsen_210.jpg

me and my memorial sign [sorry i dont have a good photo program]:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v119/ratnacho/254018500107_0_ALB.jpg

I haven't done an exhaustive media search, so forgive me if I'm wrong. But did any tv, newspaper, or radio happen to mention that Richard Paul Koehrsen, the homeless man who is being held for the murder of Christopher Darryl John Carter, also homeless, had just been released from Multnomah County Jail two days earlier?

January 20th, at 2:10 in the afternoon (so it wasn't for violating curfew), Koehrsen was picked up and charged with Trespass II. And even though he had two county holds in Beaverton, Multnomah County let him go the next day--meaning he was probably matrixed out.

I don't know how to interpret this information. But it seems odd that (as far as I can tell), none of the mainstream television or print media has used this to say "This wouldn't have happened if they didn't let dangerous people out of jail" which they usually do when a person who is housed is murdered by someone freshly released from custody. In fact, this is just the sort of horror story that's usually shouted from the jailhouse roof to scare taxpayers into funding more jail space. But the roofs are strangely silent.

Although I hate the typical fear tactics and hyper-horror that county law enforcement agencies and the mainstream media dishes out by the shovel full, the lack of such hype in the case of two homeless men, stinks a bit of "Let em kill each other off."

Or maybe I'm just cynical. I'd probably be pissed if they did hype the story. Like most citizens, I don't know what the hell I want or expect from law enforcement or the media. I just know something seems wrong with the omission of details concerning Koehrsen's release prior to the murder. Someone, please set me straight. Educate me.

The Drug Free Zone vote happened the day after the murder. Admitting that they had just released someone killed a man would have swayed the vote showing how ineffective the Drug Free Zone Ordinance is.

The Portland Tribune had the story in a piece by writer Jacob Quinn Sanders.

The top of the story is this, and I'll put in a full link at the end:

Multnomah County sheriff's deputies did not know before they let him go that a man they released from jail early because of limited space had a long history of violence. Two days later he was arrested and charged with a downtown Portland murder.
The deputies could not have known: The county Department of Community Justice never told them because, following a countywide policy, it never checked the man's full criminal history.
"We're just appalled," said Louise Grant, associate director of the city's Citizens Crime Commission.
Richard Paul Koehrsen, 45, was brought to the Multnomah County Detention Center downtown Jan. 20 on a charge of trespassing and two requests from the city of Beaverton to hold him on charges of consuming alcohol in public. He was released the next day, one of 15 inmates released that day.
"Because he was brought in on nonperson misdemeanors, we did an expedited interview that does not include a full nationwide criminal history background check," said Robb Freda-Cowie, policy and communications manager for the Community Justice Department.
He said the policy agreed to by his department, the district attorney's office, sheriff's office and county judges — which instructs workers not to check for an inmate's full criminal history in cases of arrests for minor crimes — works well.
"We do maybe 15,000 of these a year," Freda-Cowie said. "We have done this for many years. Cases like this one are very infrequent."

link:  http://www.portlandtribune.com/archview.cgi?id=33702

I think that what that Nathan Moore kid did was sick. It makes me sick to my stomach, and all he has to say is "I am sorry". Get real kid. Life is not some video game and don't even try to say that it was because of pot and alcohol. You should be sentences to way more than fifteen years in prison. Homeless people are just people; they are no different. His family and friends should be horrified and I feel sorry for them to have to deal with such an amoral child. Homeless people live a hard life already. Why would they ever think it is acceptable. Well, I guess his Mcdonald's adventure afterwards made him forget about it.