GRESHAM, Ore. (KOIN 6) – Three 16-year-olds are facing criminal indictments that accuse them of attempted murder for an assault with a tire iron and baton, court documents show.
Gresham police responded April 19 to the McDonald’s restaurant at SE 182nd and Stark Street on reports of shots fired. When police arrived, they found a male down on the ground “bleeding profusely from his head,” Multnomah County Senior Deputy District Attorney Jim F. Hayden recently wrote in court documents.
The male victim was taken to Oregon Health & Science University with serious injuries. Police learned before the alleged assault, the victim and a female had left a party in Troutdale when a Chrysler 300 “bumped” the victim’s car, Hayden wrote. The victim of the reported assault got out of his vehicle and got into an argument with the other driver.
The Chrysler 300 followed the victim’s vehicle to the McDonald’s parking lot, Hayden wrote. A witness told police that someone ran up and smashed out the window to the victim’s vehicle and that another person pulled the victim out of his car and started assaulting him, Hayden wrote. A third person ran up and started beating the victim with a baton, Hayden wrote.
Gresham Police located the Chrysler 300 near the intersection of SE 182nd and Yamhill. There were six total people inside the vehicle, Hayden wrote. The driver and front seat passenger were both identified.
The driver of the Chrysler 300, Augstine Estrada-Vargas, 16, confessed that he had bumped the victim’s vehicle after the party in Troutdale, Hayden wrote. He also admitted to following the vehicle to the McDonald’s parking lot. Estrada-Vargas told police that his passenger was the one who broke out the window with a tire iron.
Both Estrada-Vargas and the passenger, Mauricio Alvarado-Lopez, 16, confessed to using the tire iron, or “tool,” to assault the victim, Hayden wrote. After the reported assault, the tools were put back into the Chrysler 300, court documents state. Police searched the vehicle and found several metal tools, Hayden wrote.
Estrada-Vargas, Alvarado-Lopez and Juan D. Lavadores, 16, have all been indicted by a grand jury with Measure 11 crimes that accuse them of attempted murder, first-degree assault, third-degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon. Their bail has been set at $510,000 each.
Court documents show Lavadores admitted to being present during the assault. KOIN 6 News is not identifying the victim of the reported assault because court records show he fears for his safety because only three of the total six people identified in the car are charged criminally.
Gresham Police said the case remains open.