PORTLAND, Ore. — Jay Freedman's old medical transport van is more than just a way to get around. He describes it as home, at least until something better comes along. But on Saturday afternoon, it went from being his home to a getaway car when he gave a friend a ride, not realizing that his friend was the suspect in a shooting that had just left a hospital security guard dead.
Freedman works as an unarmed security guard. He said he had just finished an overnight shift and was about to go to sleep when 33-year-old Reginald Kane Jackson — who had recently changed his name to PoniaX Calles — showed up at his door.
"The suspect, Reggie Jackson, knocks on the door and says 'I'll throw you $20 in gas if you drive me to my dad's house,'" Freedman told KGW in an exclusive interview.
Freedman said he'd met Jackson a few years ago on the streets when they were both homeless, and said he knew him as someone who made money by buying and selling cars off the internet, fixing them up and flipping them. Their relationship was rocky — Freedman said he had actually gotten into a physical fight with Jackson a couple months earlier — but he agreed to give him a ride.
"I said, 'sure, I'm tired but I'll do it,'" he said. "Hurting for money."
Freedman said he didn't know that Jackson was the suspect in the shooting at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center that morning that had killed security officer Bobby Smallwood and injured another employee, or that police were actively searching for him at the time. But as the pair made their way out toward Gresham, he began to realize something was off.
"He was acting weird, he was asking me to pray for him and he was acting weird," Freedman said.
They got to Reggie's dad's house off of 122nd Avenue and Sandy, but he turned out not to be home. Freedman said he had already seen a Portland police car in the neighborhood, and as soon as he started the engine to leave again, the police car turned around and started following him.
Freedman said he assumed the officer was following him due to a problem with his van, so he turned onto 181st Avenue and Glisan, preparing to pull over for what he thought would be a traffic stop. By the time the Portland police car turned on its lights, at least one Gresham police vehicle had started following as well.
Freedman said he pulled over and turned off the car, and the officers asked him to get out. He said he told Jackson to comply with the police, but the man didn't listen.
"I told him we are not running from police," he said.
Freedman said the officers handcuffed him and put him in the back of the patrol car, but didn't tell him what Jackson had allegedly done. Jackson refused to leave the van, and Freedman said he watched from the back of the patrol car as more police continued to arrive, including a SWAT team. He said he didn't see the point where Jackson got out of the van, or when police shot and killed him.
"Knowing what I know now and what he did, I condone those actions," he said. "Cops did what they had to do. I'm at peace with myself. I do not blame myself for his death, because I told him to comply with law enforcement."
Even so, he said the incident was a "hard lesson" in which he went out of his way to help someone out, only to have it come back to bite him.
Police took Freedman's van for evidence. He said he got it back Monday morning, but it was destroyed. He's saving up for a new one, but estimates it will cost him about $4,000.
"They busted out my windows. This used to be an AC unit, obviously they took that out. This is where you see the real damage," he said, pointing to the van's shattered windows.
Freedman said his thoughts are with the family of the hospital security guard.
He also said Jackson had an 8-year-old daughter and a newborn son, and said Jackson's estranged wife had a restraining order on him.
"I did everything in my power to try and put him in the right direction," he said. "He chose not to listen."
Freedman has a PayPal listed for anyone wanting to donate at the link listed here.
