Portland Police Officer Ambushed: Suspect Smashed Car Window, Sprayed Pepper Spray Inside
A police officer in Portland, Oregon, was sitting in a patrol car when a man smashed out his window and pepper-sprayed the cop in an unprovoked daylight attack on Sunday.
We can all be thankful the officer wasn’t rushed to a hospital after being ambushed and shot.
But unprovoked, brazen daylight attacks on our country’s law enforcement officers are becoming a trend in blue cities.
The latest attack occurred on Sunday, according to Portland police, just before 10 a.m.
The department reported via a news release that an officer was sitting a marked patrol car filling out paperwork when he was attacked near the intersection of South Corbett Avenue and South Lane Street, which is south of downtown Portland.
“A male approached the patrol vehicle, broke out the back window (on the hatch), pepper-sprayed the interior, then ran to a vehicle and drove off,” police said.
Luckily, the alleged attacker was quickly caught and arrested.
“The officer was able to broadcast suspect information over the radio. He and assisting officers were able to locate and stop the vehicle about 6 blocks away. The suspect was arrested. The officer recognized the vehicle as one that had been following him earlier,” the news release added.
The man suspected in the attack is 41-year-old John B. Russell of Portland.
Russell is charged with assaulting a public safety officer, aggravated harassment and first-degree criminal mischief.
Police reported Russell was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center after the quick arrest.
Journalist Andy Ngo, who has made a career reporting on Portland’s perpetual state of rioting, chaos and protests, shared an image of the man.
Ngo also shared a photo of suspected burglary tools found in Russell’s possession.
A @PortlandPolice officer was ambushed in an attack. A man smashed the cop’s car window & maced him. He escaped in a car but was caught. John B. Russell, 41, was found carrying knives, a laser pointer, rocks, slingshot & other weapons used at #antifa riots https://t.co/Dj10jFsaBR pic.twitter.com/eXb32Du0md
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) October 5, 2020
Per the police department, “Inside the vehicle, officers found a window punch tools, pepper spray, throwing knives, a laser pointer, a slingshot, rocks, and more.”
The items were taken as evidence.
But the most shocking part of Ngo’s reporting is not that an officer was attacked or that the alleged attacker possessed suspicious items.
Russell, per a booking report photo shared by Ngo was, released with no bail.
Portland’s Democratic leaders continue to set a dangerous precedent making a mockery of the rule of law.
Portland District Attorney Mike Schmidt has made the decision to release people accused of unthinkable violence back onto the streets after they’ve been arrested for allegedly committing egregious crimes.
Schmidt offers many of these people blanket amnesty for most crimes, with the city’s leaders throwing their support being the rioting, as if committing violent crimes is part of some historic freedom movement.
It’s not.
Watch Schmidt ramble on in this video about “racial injustice” from August:
On Aug. 11, Schmidt announced in a news release “a policy that will promote a safer community and that reduces the negative and lasting impacts a person can experience once involved in the criminal justice system following an arrest resulting from a peaceful protest or mass demonstration.”
Translation: More criminals are welcome to live in a consequence-free environment.
The policy from Schmidt includes applying “the highest level of scrutiny” when reviewing arrests connected to “a protesting environment.”
That includes attacks on peace officers.
Apparently smashing a squad car window and attacking a cop is now protected in Portland as peaceful, but Schmidt already told us how these kinds of attacks would play out.
When people tell you who they are, listen.
The same month Schmidt used his office to support rioting, a man named Michael Reinoehl allegedly shot and killed a man in Portland who reportedly was there to voice his support for President Donald Trump.
The full story of what happened will never be told, as Reinoehl was killed by police in Washington state last month after police said he refused to surrender peacefully after being hunted down by the U.S. Marshals Service, The New York Times reported.
We do know Reinoehl was arrested at a July riot in Portland while in possession of an illegal handgun.
The man allegedly used a handgun a month later to assassinate a conservative when he, according to Portland’s laws, should have been in jail.
Schmidt let him out, and he went on to allegedly kill.
The DA joins Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler as a part of a government that is systemically negligent in protecting decent, law-abiding citizens and now police officers.
A month after two cops were doing their jobs in Compton, California, when they were ambushed and shot for no reason, Portland’s Democrats continue to promote anarchy and crime under the guise that it is part of protesting perceived racial disparities.
The Department of Justice last month designated Portland as one of three U.S. cities considered sanctuaries of “anarchy, violence and destruction.”
The department awarded the designation to Portland, Seattle and New York City after the White House asked the DOJ to identify “anarchist jurisdictions,” which, among other things, defund police agencies over enforcing law and order.
The goal of the designations is to review the federal funds that are doled out to these cities from the federal government.
Portland, despite being the smallest in population of the three national anarchist zones, somehow beats out the competition with regard to lawlessness.
Perhaps it’s time for the federal government to move forward on defunding Oregon’s largest city.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
