PORTLAND, Ore. — Police arrested three men including a firefighter on Saturday in connection to a kidnapping in downtown Portland. According to court documents, the Portland firefighter wanted to "teach a lesson" to the victim who allegedly burglarized a marijuana dispensary he owned.
Portland Fire & Rescue firefighter Douglas Lee Bourland, 46, and Edward Sherman Simmons, 24, are charged with kidnapping. Hong Dieu Lee, 42, is charged with assault, unlawful use of a weapon and kidnapping.
According to court documents, around 10:30 p.m. officers responded to a call from an Uber driver who said she saw a man being forced at gunpoint into a black Range Rover and driven away near Southwest Broadway and Southwest Taylor Street. The witness was able to provide a vehicle description and possible suspect descriptions.
Court documents say the victim of the alleged kidnapping had been eating at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse downtown with a group of friends and another friend, later identified as Simmons, arrived to pick up food to-go. When the victim and Simmons stepped outside, Simmons received a phone call and a black Range Rover immediately pulled up. A man armed with a gun, later identified as Lee, got out of the vehicle and forced the victim inside. Bourland was driving, according to a probably cause affidavit.
The victim's friends told officers they had burglarized Oregon Hemp House about a week prior.
About an hour later, an officer went to the dispensary and saw the potential suspect vehicle nearby in the John's Landing area of Southwest Portland. Officers stopped the car near Southwest California Street and Southwest Macadam Avenue, and additional officers responded and eventually took three people into custody.
The victim was not in the vehicle at the time, according to police. Police said Lee provided them with the address of a marijuana farm in Clackamas County where officers found the victim Sunday morning.
According to the affidavit, Lee told detectives that Bourland had learned the victim burglarized his business and stole marijuana. Lee said he and Bourland decided they wanted to teach the man a lesson, and that he had a gun and forced the man inside the Range Rover. Lee also said he, Bourland and Simmons drove the victim to a marijuana farm in Estacada where they planned to leave the victim in a storage container overnight before forcing him to lead them to the marijuana he had stolen.
A spokesperson for Portland Fire & Rescue said Bourland was on leave prior to this arrest.
"Service, community, and sacrifice are central to what it means to be a Portland firefighter. I am gravely concerned by details of this arrest but will closely follow the legal proceedings before forming an opinion about what has occurred. On the surface these are horrific charges and justice needs to be served," Fire Chief Sara Boone said in a statement.
The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Jeffery Pontius at Jeffery.Pontius@portlandoregon.gov, or Detective Stephen Gandy at Stephen.Gandy@portlandoregon.gov.