PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A father on his way with his wife and daughter to a Christmas gathering was beaten up by teens on a MAX train, 2 of whom were arrested earlier this week on felony assault charges.
Robert Valentino, his wife and their 10-year-old daughter were on the MAX train on December 27, 2018 when a group of 9 youths boarded at the NE 60th MAX stop.
Documents obtained by KOIN 6 News show the youths got onto the MAX train blasting music. Valentino asked them to turn it down.
“I approached it with trying to identify them and say, ‘Hey, can you keep it down? That’s disrespectful. Some people don’t want to hear it,” he said.
But then they turned it up louder and put it in his face.
“I turned back to them and I said, ‘Are you serious?’ And that’s when he had the speaker and I thought he was going to hit me with it.”
Valentino told KOIN 6 News he grabbed the speaker and told them if they were going to use it as a weapon he was taking their speaker away.
He said he gave it back, but that’s when things began to happen.
“As soon as I turned, that’s where the first blow hit me,” he said.
Two of the teens began pummeling him in front of his wife and daughter. They knocked out 4 teeth and broke his jaw in 2 places.
“They just kept hitting me. They just kept hitting me.”
But the worst of it all, he said, was having it happen in front of his daughter.
“One of the things for me, as a father. is to make her feel safe, you know, and that we do that every day,” he said. “This was one of those times that I wasn’t able to do that.”
When police arrived, they reviewed video and identified 2 members of the group as being “primarily involved in the assault.” Those 15-year-olds each told Portland detectives they and others punched Valentino “in the face several times,” documents show.
Those teens, Jerimiah Terrell Hannon, 15, of Portland and Marquavious Dovontae Ware, 15 of Gresham were arrested January 4, 2019.
KOIN 6 News is identifying these minors since they face Measure 11 charges.
They each face 3 counts of assault including one felony assault, plus interfering with public transportation. Each is also being held on bail of $262,500.
They are not expected to be in court for another week.