Editors Note: Details in this story are graphic and may be disturbing to some readers.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) —Probable cause documents released Friday by the Multnomah District Attorney’s Office detail the graphic scene police found on Oct. 14.
Ricky Malone Sr, 65, was found dead in the street from a gunshot wound at North Mohawk Avenue and Hendricks Street in the early morning hours.
Three teens — two 15-year-olds and one 14-year-old — are accused of murdering him. They appeared in court on Friday.
What happened
Police officers found Malone after responding to a welfare check about a man lying in the street, according to court documents. Authorities said they found Malone dead from a single shotgun blast to his chest fired at close range. They said he was surrounded by a large pool of blood.
Officers said a bag of bottles and cans that Malone had been collecting was also lying beside him. His family said Malone liked to collect bottles and cans and had plans to meet a relative at a bottle drop the morning he was killed.
According to probable cause documents, the three teens met up on Oct. 14 at the 14-year-old’s house with plans to commit a home invasion.
Investigators said surveillance video captured the teens near where Malone was killed and connected them to a home invasion on North Midway Avenue that was reported just before 4 a.m. — minutes before the shooting.
A man living at the home said three masked males broke in but he scared them off. He said one of them was wearing a clown mask with long green hair and another was holding a shotgun.
It was after the failed home invasion that the teens allegedly ran into Malone and demanded he give them his car. They shot him when he refused, police said.
The probable cause document shows several hit-and-runs were reported later in the morning involving the same car: a blue Toyota Avalon that belonged to Malone.
Officers said they found the car about 2 miles from where Malone was shot. It bore damage consistent with the reported hit-and-runs, as well as spattered blood on the driver’s side. Officers also found a receipt from a Taco Bell order made about 3.5 hours after Malone was killed. They watched surveillance video from the restaurant and saw Malone’s car being driven by one of the teen suspects.
Officials said the shotgun was recovered the same day in shrubs along North Allegheny Avenue, near the crime scene.
The arrests
On Oct. 24, Portland police arrested 15-year-old Aaron Criswell, 15-year-old Richard Jerome Rand IV and a 14-year-old suspect whose name has not been released.
Criswell told investigators Malone was the father of his brother’s girlfriend, according to court documents. He allegedly admitted to shooting the man when he refused to give up his car.
The older suspects are being charged as adults under Ballot Measure 11, which allows juveniles 15 and older charged with certain felonies to be tried as adults.
‘Ricky is going to be very, very missed’
Malone’s brother Robert was in the courtroom on Friday.
“Ricky is going to be very, very missed,” Robert Malone told KOIN 6 News after the hearing.
“Ricky was just a quiet, good type of brother. Children loved him. He worked with youth, he was a basketball official,” he said.
“I’d like to get more answers, answers of what happened, why it happened, how it happened,” he said.