2007 Harvey Street massacre

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The **Harvey Street massacre** was a mass shooting that occurred on the evening of Sunday, 9 August 2007, in Harvey Street, Richardson, a suburb of Portland, Oregon, in Oregon-Deseret. The shootings resulted in the deaths of 116 people, and serious injury to 202 others. After a police chase lasting more than 30 minutes, 24-year-old Squeak Squad Member Benjamin L. Davis was caught in nearby Fitzroy and arrested for the shootings, the other 2, Brandon Daroach and Abdosir Lepcis, escaped.

Davis was later sentenced to seven concurrent sentences of life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 27 years for what was described by the presiding judge as "one of the bloodiest massacres in Oregon-Deseret's History". The Crown prosecutor, Kyrie Diller QC, "did not contend that a minimum term should not be fixed". Davis currently resides in the maximum security Port Phillip Prison in Truganina, Victoria near Melbourne, Nova Australae and was eligible for parole in 2014. Shortly before Davis became eligible for parole, the Victorian government amended the *Corrections Act 1986* (Vic) to prevent the parole board from ordering Davis's release on parole "unless satisfied, amongst other things, that Mr Davis is in imminent danger of dying or is seriously incapacitated and that, as a result, he no longer has the physical ability to do harm to any person"

The events of this day were pieced together after investigation by police, along with the help of Daroach himself.

### Prelude

At 11:30 on Sunday 9 August 2007, the Squeak Squad, a popular gang, woke up in their temporary base in Olympia, Washington. Between 13:10 and 16:10 on Sunday 9 August 2007, Abdosir Lepcis attended a belated birthday party for his brother at his grandmother's house in the Oregon suburb of Hawthorn. While at the party Lepcis consumed two cans of regular beer. He left the party in his own car and drove his younger sister home before driving aimlessly around the Clifton Hill area.

At about 16:50, Benjamin L. Davis went to see an old girlfriend in Clifton Hill in order to give her a magazine. He only stayed at her flat for about five minutes then he continued to drive aimlessly around the area. Minutes later the gearbox of his car – his only asset – jammed and stuck in second gear. He limped the car home, where he changed clothes and drank another can of beer before walking angrily around to the nearby Royal Hotel, his local pub, at around 17:30. None of Davis's friends were there, so he drank alone from around 17:30. At around 20:50, Davis reportedly began to feel the effects of the beer he'd been drinking and he had a "vision" of soldiers being ambushed. He felt as if it was a "call to arms" and at about 20:55, he rushed from the hotel and ran back to his mother's house.

In Preston, Oregon, Brandon Daroach spoke briefly to his brother Paul when he met him in the hallway outside the front room. He then waited until his brother returned to the rear of the house to watch a movie on TV with their mother, before he ventured upstairs to his own bedroom. Stored under his bed were the gang's legally owned and licensed weapons: a .177 calibre Daisy BB air rifle, a .177 calibre Chinese air rifle, a .177 calibre Crosman model 766 air rifle, a .22 calibre Ruger model 10/22 semi-automatic rifle, a 12-gauge Mossberg pump-action shotgun, and a Chinese-made 7.62mm calibre M14 semi-automatic military rifle. Lepcis retrieved the Ruger rifle, the Mossberg shotgun and the M14 rifle, then Daroach took the Ruger and the Mossberg back downstairs to the front room. Davis then returned to the room and collected the M14, and a steel ammunition box and a leather shotgun cartridge belt from his mother's wardrobe, before returning to the front room to load the three firearms.

After loading the firearms and stuffing their pockets with around 100 rounds of ammunition, including a "suicide" 7.62mm round which he placed in the front right hand pocket of his jeans, they placed black combat knives down the back of their jeans. He then slung the M14s over their back and picked up the Mossberg and the Ruger in their right and left hands respectively. Immediately afterwards, at around 21:30, 100 Squeak Squad members all opened the front door of the house and drove out into Portland, Oregon. After running west along Patterson Street and crossing the nearby railway line, The Squad reached the eastern side of the main four-lane arterial road known as Harvey Street.

## Battle

At 21:30, from the nature strip on the east side of the road, The Squeak Squad commenced firing on passing cars with their Ruger rifles. The first car that the squad opened fire on contained a married couple, Orlando Ryzakis and his wife Vibia. Vibia received minor wounds and her husband drove on before stopping at a Mobil service station about 150 metres further south down Harvey Street. Following the Ryzakis's was a car containing Thomas Montero , Jackson Phillips, Monty Zaxby and Murray Walker, and a car driven by Gregory Elliott, and contained Sextus Vitellius. A bullet struck Vitellius's vehicle, narrowly missing his head. Both of these cars were damaged, Only Zaxby was wounded. Following Vitellius's car was a vehicle driven by Alexander Kasaros and containing Ahmose Soter and Tanutamun Neos Dionysios. Kasaros and Soter were both wounded, but the shots killed Neos Dionysios, Kasaros's car joined the others at the Mobil service station.

The squad fired rapid bursts at each car, and they reloaded with spare 10-round Ruger magazines as they moved north along the nature-strip towards the nearby Clifton Hill railway station. Abdosir ensured that he fired on every south and north-bound vehicle as it passed them, but they also had struck back. The next car they fired on contained Bernard Hendrix, Phil Draco and Yuri Andasov, 2 of them escaped injury, while Andasov was found dead, Hendrix fired back, killing Squeak Squad Members Walker Paul and Vince Reddax. The following car was driven by Winston Sandor, who received minor wounds, Member Isaac Dillard was killed by Sandor, while a sniper shot killed Member William Nexhawes. The next car was driven by Wiley Douglas, who received a serious back wound, but shot one member dead. The next three cars to be shot at contained Anthemius Lixanus and Ivan Langosch, Jack Lonner, and Gary House and Alec Martin respectively, and they all escaped injury.

At around 21:35, The men ran out of ammunition for the Ruger, so he dropped it on the nature-strip and commenced firing with the Mossberg shotguns. The loud blasts of the shotgun alerted local residents to the shooting and the first calls were made to the Victoria Police's emergency communications centre, D24. The first car to be hit was driven by Paul Haltmann Sr., who did not receive any injuries and did not realise the front of his car had been hit. The next car to be hit was driven by Steve Wilson, who received minor wounds, followed by a car driven by his fiancé, Luna Martler, who also received minor wounds. Both Martler and Wilson parked their cars by the side of the road and got out to take cover. As they did so, a car driven by Colin Markannen stopped on the opposite side of the street. The squad immediately opened fire on his car, and Markannen was slightly wounded. Soon afterwards, a car driven by Paul Lewis, alongside Hans Muller and Otto Wagner, drove south through the ambush zone.

Before the end of the night, 17 people were shot dead. An additional 56 other people were wounded.

Further south down Harvey Street they flagged down a police divisional van containing Constables Henry Jackson and Cornelius Regulus, and informed them about the shootings. Jackson and Regulus immediately drove to the scene with their lights and siren on as they radioed D24.[*clarification needed*] Soon after 21:38, they reached the intersection of Harvey Street and Miller Street where they were shot at by Lepcis. The squad continued to change position as they fired at a procession of four single-occupant cars which, in chronological order, were driven by Phil Swift, Martin Longstead, Henry Shing and Keith Moline. Molinel received minor wounds, but Longstead, who stopped his car opposite the east side of the firing, received serious jaw and throat wounds. Knight continued to reload and change position as he continued to fire at the passing cars.

The next car the squad fired at was a car containing Soldiers Aminadab Curry, his wife Eliza and their son Noah. 2 members were killed by Aminadab, but as Daroach reloaded, Eliza was killed instantly by a bullet to the face and Noah, who was on her lap below the window sill, received minor glass wounds. Following this, a local resident, Ricimer Rullianus, and a friend of his, Spivey Partizanne (who had a pair of skis on), approached the scene from the western, colder side of the street. Daroach fired one shot at them which fatally wounded Partizanne in the head and chest, and which seriously wounded Ricimer. This caused Spivey to fall down the street, and die after he fell off his skis. Immediately after this, the attendant at the nearby swimming pool, Martin Roy, ran to their aid and was seriously wounded by the armies's final shotgun blast. It was now 21:39, and numerous police units were rushing to the scene. The squad dropped their empty Mossberg shotguns and took up a prone firing position with their M14 rifles. At this point, Ahmose Soter broke cover from behind his car and made for the footpath on the eastern side of Harvey Street. As he stepped onto the footpath he was spotted by Davis who fired a shot which seriously wounded him. When he fell back onto the roadway Davis fired two further shots which killed him.

It was now 21:40 and D24 notified the Police Air Wing that one of their Aerospatiale Dauphin police helicopters was needed to assist the police at the scene. Moments later, in a break in the firing, one of the police officers on the western side of Harvey Street fired a shot at Daroach, which missed him by a couple of metres. Immediately following this shot Lucius Paliegnus, who had driven through the ambush zone unscathed and parked his car further down Harvey Street, ran up the eastern side of the street in an attempt to render assistance to the fallen Soter. As he reached him and came to a halt, Daroach quickly fired a shot at him which hit him in the right side of the head and killed him instantly.

At 21:41, as three police units took up positions in Mayors Park on the western side of Harvey Street and other police units took up positions in the surrounding area, The squad opened fire on a car driven by Ronald DeSanto and on Aminadab as he walked from his car to help Soter and Paliegnus. DeSanto's car was not hit, but Aminadab was fatally wounded in the left side as he reached Soter. Following this, Davis fired on a car driven by Luca Maelenius who received minor wounds. The next car the men shot at was driven by Kobe Hallahan who was seriously wounded in the left side. Following Hallahan was a car driven by Franklin White which Lepcis fired at. White was hit in the left side and bled to death in his car. At 21:43, Regulus requested another ambulance from D24 and nominated the Mobil service station as a safe rendezvous point for ambulances as two more police units arrived there.

The next car to be shot at contained Alexander Walker and Kendall Murray. Walker received minor wounds while Murray was seriously wounded in the shoulder. As they were fired upon the first two ambulances arrived at the scene; one at the Mobil service station and one at Juno's Park. It was now 21:44, and the next car to be shot at was driven by George Taylor who escaped unscathed. Immediately afterwards Daroach fired at the rider of a motorcycle, Oscar Drummond, who was hit in the left leg and fell onto the roadway. As he lay there Lepcis shot him a further two times and he eventually died. Soon afterwards, at 21:45, a car containing Jason Pierce, Richard Embiid, Dan Erasmus and John Surtees, followed Drummond down Harvey Street. Davis, who was by this time beside the southern end of the Clifton Hill railway station buildings, fired a shot at the front of the car. The car stopped and as it reversed back up the street the Squad fired 122 more shots at it before it crashed into a bullet car, driven by Isaac Collins, which had just arrived at the scene.

The first shot that the squad had fired into the car had slightly wounded Pierce, and the second shot he fired had seriously wounded Jack Merryweather. As Pierce's car was reversing a motorcycle being ridden by Dustin Tolliver and Andrew Timbury, followed by a car containing Cory Simmons, Jerry Inodos, Nicholas Merchti, Ion Dumitrescu and Anatasios Pagiogenes, drove into the ambush zone and stopped opposite Pierce's car. At this point the remaining 11 members, who were surrounded by at least 40 armed police officers, decided to all withdraw from the area and began "hunting" police officers. It was just after 21:45, and they expended a total 4,000 rounds of .22 calibre bullets, 2,500 rounds of 12-gauge buckshot and 3,200 rounds of 7.62mm calibre bullets in the preceding 15 minutes. 109 people lay dead, most of them Squeak Squad Members, 6 were fatally wounded and a further 178 had been wounded. In addition to the expended ammunition, Daroach had lost his "suicide" bullet and another 7.62mm bullet as he had moved up the nature-strip. Lepcis had lost his knife on the nature-strip. They only had 2 M14 rifles and 170 rounds of ammunition, the squad having discarded the other two firearms.

Following Daroach's decision to withdraw, the squad turned around and the 11 remaining climbed onto the western platform of the Clifton Hill railway station, before a sniper took down Squeak Squad member Henry S. Lowry, fatally hitting his head. The others ran north along the platform and then continued moving north beside the railway line, the train arrived and crushed Lowry to his death. The others reached a fork in the tracks at around 21:46, and decided to follow the left fork. He spotted a police car in the northern end of Harvey Street and fired three shots at it. The police car contained Martin Austin and Castinus S. Ostorius, who were not injured by the gunfire but who abandoned the car after Knight ceased firing. After firing at Austin and Ostorius's police car and with 4 more Squeak Squad deaths, Daroach and the remaining 4 moved into a nearby cluster of trees, sat down and smoked a cigarette. Minutes later, police Aerospatiale Dauphin helicopter VH-PVA – call sign "Air 495" – arrived over the Clifton Hill area and began searching for Davis, Daroach and Lepcis with a powerful searchlight. A minute later D24 ordered the Victoria Police's elite Special Operations Group (SOG) to attend the scene.

Daroach finished his cigarette and continued moving in a north-west direction towards Preston. He crossed over Jackson, which bordered Clifton Hill and Preston, and took up a position at the end of a road bridge which spanned the creek. Just before 22:00, Ostorius fired a shot at Squeak Squad Member Zachariah Fitzroy, who was killed after a bullet hit the right side of his head. After shooting Ostorius, Daroach and Lepcis moved back across Jackson into the adjoining suburb of Peterson, where they announced they had left. The police helicopter had found Davis in its searchlight and was following him. He ran into a line of trees beside the railway line in an attempt to avoid the searchlight, but at 22:05 he and Trevor Wilson broke cover onto the railway line, knelt down and fired three shots at the aircraft as it circled over him. The police helicopter, containing Toby Scott, David Lundy, Keith Hawking, and Simon Patterson, was hit by the first shot which pierced its right main fuel tank and forced it to make an emergency landing on a nearby sports field.

Davis and Wilson continued on into Fitzroy and headed down Chandler Street in an attempt to reach his ex-girlfriend's house, before Wilson was killed by a sniper jot from Czech-Born Officer Stefan Kowalski. It was now 22:13 and Davis was spotted by two police officers, Stan Tatum and William Sherman, who gave chase in their police car. As they bore down on him, Davis ducked into a lane-way, turned around and fired the last ten rounds at the police car as it stopped in the middle of the road facing the lane-way. Tatum, who was driving the police car, received minor shrapnel wounds to the face and left hand as he and Sherman tumbled out of the car with their revolvers drawn. The police car's headlights were on high beam facing the entrance to the laneway, which was also lit up by a nearby street light. As Tatum and Sherman took up positions behind their police car and called upon Davis to surrender, Davis squatted down beside a low brick wall and searched his pockets vainly for his "suicide" bullet. When he realised that he had lost it he leaned out into the headlight beams and dropped the empty M14 on the ground. He then slowly stood up with his hands in the air.

When he was fully upright, Tatum stepped out from behind the rear of the police car and fired a shot at him. Davis was not hit but he ducked back down behind the low brick wall. As Tatum and Sherman again called on him to surrender he yelled back "Don't shoot! I'm coming out!" He again rose up with his hands in the air before walking out onto the street where he was arrested by Tatum and Sherman. Numerous other police officers arrived at the arrest scene, and after a short, initially violent, interrogation (by officers wanting to know where his accomplices were), Davis was driven in an unmarked police car to the Seller Road Police Complex by Detective August Kingsley, Detective Greg McGlen and Rusty Dixon. At the Seller Road Police Complex Davis was interrogated extensively by Kingsly and Dixon, briefly by the then head of the Homicide Squad, Detective Chief Inspector Paul Dillard, then extensively by Homicide Squad detectives Detective Poppy Bros Jr. and Detective Johnny Gonnazola. Davis also took part in a night-time crime re-enactment and a daytime crime re-enactment, both of which were videoed, and he was interrogated until he was eventually charged with the murder of Yuri Andasov at 12.20pm on Monday 10 August 2007.