A Black Oregon food truck owner reportedly was beaten, stomped out and called the N-word by a random white person during a brutal altercation in front of his business, and his attorney claims police did not properly tend to him after the ordeal.
Darell Preston’s attorney said he was viciously assaulted in an unprovoked attack and officers failed to transport him to a hospital to check his injuries on June 15. She also questions the “timeliness and sufficiency of the government’s response.”
“We are deeply disturbed by this assault, which has left the community shaken and outraged,” attorney Alicia LeDuc Montgomery said in a statement Monday. “We call upon law enforcement to thoroughly investigate this despicable act of violence.”
However, representatives for the Portland Police Bureau said the victim was not cooperative, and the officers did the best they could under the circumstances.
Part of the attack was reportedly captured on surveillance video footage.
According to reports, Preston was on the phone with his wife in front of his LoRell’s Chicken Shack food truck when a man in a black jacket ambushed him on the sidewalk on Southeast Foster Road and 52nd Avenue. The lawyer reports that witnesses rode by in cars, but no one stopped to help.
Video of the attack shows cars honking at the assailant and someone shouting for him to stop. He calmly walks away after beating Preston down to the ground.
The video reportedly shows a bald white man assaulting a person crumpled on the sidewalk, which LeDuc Montgomery identifies as Preston. The white man punches and kicks him, and as he struggles to sit up, Preston is repeatedly beaten down to the ground.
“Mr. Preston suffered severe facial injuries,” the attorney said to the Daily Beast. “Portland police arrived on scene, but to the family’s knowledge, did not call an ambulance or provide medical care to Mr. Preston.”
“Mr. Preston was driven to the hospital by [his wife] Mrs. Preston with his face wrapped in a shirt,” LeDuc Montgomery continued.
The attorney sent a letter to the City of Portland and the Multnomah County District Attorney about her probe.
A spokesperson for the department has a different version of the events.
According to Terri Wallo, the representative from the department’s strategic communications unit, “It took officers several minutes to convince the victim to come out of the foot cart to talk with them.”
“Once the victim was out, he told officers he was delivering food and was ‘attacked.’ When the officer asked for more detail on exactly what happened, the victim refused to say more and locked himself in the cart,” Wallo continued in a statement released five days after the incident.
Attorney LeDuc Montgomery said that Preston “could hardly speak” after being so brutally beaten in his face.
Photos taken of Preston immediately after the attack show one of his eyes was almost completely swollen shut with blood leaking from it. The other eye also was bruised black with puffiness all around it. The pictures also show his lips were busted and protruding from the swelling.
According to a GoFundMe set up to cover Preston’s medical costs, legal expenses, and future “business costs associated with him being unable to work his food cart,’ the man also suffered a broken nose and fractured face.
Police spokesperson Sgt. Kevin Allen said PPB detectives from the Police Bureau’s Major Crimes Unit are now viewing the attack as a bias crime. Since the incident, they have spoken to the family and bumped the attack up to that classification on June 19.
“We initially did not know the full scope of what happened due to limited information provided at the scene. As soon as detectives were able to reach the victim, they launched the investigation into a possible bias crime,” Allen said.
As for taking Preston to the hospital, Allen says officers can’t overstep their boundaries.
“It would not have been appropriate for the officer to override the patient’s wishes,” Allen said.
Officers also thought they were responding to someone being struck by a car, according to officials. Upon arrival and talking to the firefighters responding to that crisis, they learned about Preston’s assault. The firefighters told them that both the victim and suspect had left the scene already.
Preston is on the road to healing, and his family plans to reopen his food truck this week. They say he is known for “his phenomenal Chicago-style chicken, his big heart and even bigger smile.”
“Hate crimes and violence of any kind create fear, anxiety, and a sense of vulnerability among community members,” LeDuc Montgomery said.
