PORTLAND, Ore. — Quick thinking and the aid of some Good Samaritans helped an Uber-driving mother of four escape from a man who held her at gunpoint in Southeast Portland early Monday morning.
The woman, whose first name is Kri, said she was driving Uber when she picked up a man who'd called for a ride shortly after 3 a.m. Sunday on the corner of Southeast 26th Avenue and Powell Boulevard. She said the man, who was armed with a gun, took her cell phone and threatened to shoot and rape her.
"He told me to drive or he was going to kill me," Kri said. "He made me look into his eyes and told me that he was the devil and he's going to bring me to hell.
"I sat and I thought about how am I going to make it out of this situation so I can make it home to my kids."
After about 10 minutes, she saw an opportunity. Kri told her captor she needed gas and pulled into a gas station on Southeast Grand Avenue. She said she unbuckled her seatbelt and leapt out of the car.
"I screamed at the top of my lungs," she said. "And people came and just flooded me."
The suspect got out of the car and ran away on foot. He returned and fired a single shot into the air, police told KGW. They found a shell casing in the area. Police have made no arrests and didn't release any suspect information.
"People don't care anymore," Kri told KGW. "I just can't fathom this kind of thing happening."
This was just one of numerous incidents on a violent weekend in Portland. The Portland Police Bureau (PPB) said officers responded to three homicides and seven other shootings from Saturday through Monday morning.
Officers were stretched so thin over the weekend, they couldn't respond to multiple illegal street-racing takeovers across the city Sunday night. At least three people were shot near one of the takeovers. PPB said other lower-priority calls didn't get a prompt response either because they didn't have enough officers.
The victim of the armed carjacking said the violence this past weekend was just another example of the current state of the city.
"The city is bad," she said. "Portland is terrible right now."
Anyone with information about this case who has not already spoken to police should email crimetips@portlandoregon.gov and reference Case No. 22-232410.