PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Over the four years Todd Henderson has biked up and down 82nd avenue, he’s had some close calls. It’s taught him to be aware of his surroundings, leading to what he calls a “sixth sense for people’s driving.”
That’s why when Henderson was biking north on the east sidewalk on 82nd avenue on Monday, a truck pulling out of the Eastport Shopping Center caught his attention.
“Before I cross any sort of intersection I always look all over and I saw him coming at a good rate of speed in the pickup truck and when I saw that, my goal is to clear the intersection as fast as possible,” he explained.
When he cleared the intersection, pushing his bike along with him, he says he looked back and saw something he says he’s never encountered before — a man being run over by the truck that was barreling out of the shopping center.
“The victim was run over, he went under the wheels, he dragged him across the street, he was screaming and there were sparks that were flying because he had a basket with him,” Henderson recalled.
Henderson says it was surreal. He yelled at the driver, saying the person who was hit was dead.
“Once I yelled at him that he killed him, that’s when the wheels spun again… and he was coming right at me,” he said. “He was halfway across that intersection and I got out of the way as quickly as possible. I ran in the opposite direction.”
White paint from Portland police tracking the truck’s tires is still on the sidewalk and grass at the scene. A chunk of dirt is overturned where Henderson’s bike was run over after he dropped it. A slight berm with some boulders sits on the corner of the exit to the shopping center.
Henderson says he thinks the burn, and his awareness of the situation, helped in saving his life.
“I regretted saying anything. I think looking back, I shouldn’t have said anything, it was just so powerful,” Henderson said. “He just murdered somebody. This poor man — just the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Portland police identified Fredrick Moore as the alleged driver. He’s now facing multiple charges, including second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, failure to perform duties of a driver to an injured person and attempted assault.
According to court documents, Moore has been previously convicted of murder in Washington. He entered no plea in his first court appearance Wednesday.”
Meanwhile, Henderson says he’s still processing what happened Monday night.
“It was so devastating, I don’t know what to say,” he said. “I’ve never seen a man die in such a way — in such a painful, awful way.”