LINCOLN CITY, Oregon — Seven Clark County, Washington men were arrested in Lincoln City the night of July 4 for crimes that included threatening police and harassing a Black family with racist slurs.
The Lincoln County District Attorney said Monday, however, he will not be charging the men with bias crimes because their actions don’t qualify under Oregon law.
In a news release, police describe the group as "confrontational and highly intoxicated."
At about 9:33 p.m., officers from the Lincoln City Police Department were dispatched to the beach near the Inn at Spanish Head on a report of group of people shooting off illegal fireworks and causing a disturbance with other citizens.
In an interview Monday Chief Jerry Palmer said officers found the group near the Inn at Spanish Head, a local hotel, and seized some illegal fireworks.
“As our officers made that seizure, these suspect individuals surrounded my two officers and their ATV and trying to engage them in a fight,” Chief Palmer said.
Seeing they were outnumbered, the officers rode away and called for back-up.
That's when, the chief said, these men set their sights on a nearby Black family, who were on the beach to celebrate the holiday.
The chief said the men set up bonfires oddly close to the family and started blasting music.
“Some of [the music] would have been racist in nature. There was a lot of catcalling, and I've heard that some firecrackers and stuff may have been thrown in the family's direction. And then there was the Nazi signs,” Chief Palmer said.
Officers formed a line between the group and the Black family so the family could safely leave the beach and return to their room. Meanwhile, several in the group continued to taunt the officers, trying to challenge them to fight, police reported.
Other members of the group began shooting off large illegal aerial fireworks in front of the officers.
“We had about 31 officers deployed for working fireworks on the beach,” Chief Palmer said. “And I believe there were 28 or 29 of us on scene to manage this incident.”
Eventually, Chief Palmer said, the Black family packed up and went inside the hotel. KGW has reached out to them via the police department and the DA’s office. We have yet to hear back.
A manager at the Inn at Spanish Head said Monday countless people have called, asking what they can do to help the family. Several people he said have offered to pay the bill for their stay.
Police took seven members of the group into custody.
Gennadiy Kachankov (30), Antoliy Kachankov (28), Andrey Zaytsev (28), Oleg Saranchuk (45), Ruslan Tkachenko (22), all of Clark County, were charged with Riot, Interfering with Police, Disorderly Conduct II, Harassment, Possession of Illegal Fireworks, and Offensive Littering. Yuriy Kachankov (30), of Clark County, was charged with these crimes plus Resisting Arrest.
A seventh man, who refused to identify himself and who had no ID on him, was booked into the Lincoln County Jail for fingerprint identification and charged with similar crimes.
KGW also attempted to contact the men. Numbers listed for most of them were disconnected or no longer in service. Messages left for the others have not been returned.
Chief Palmer said Monday officers believe at least some of the men are indeed family.
Some have criminal records. According to court records, Gennadiy Kachankov has the most severe prior convictions: Assault with a Deadly Weapon and Vehicle Prowling.
Chief Palmer said Monday he’d seen people writing on social media, asking why the men weren’t held in jail.
“The state has right now is the COVID restrictions that have been created in our local jails and prisons,” he said. “Inciting a Riot is a class C felony… The jail currently is only considering lodging individuals that are being charged with a class a and class B felonies [and violent,] in-person crimes.
Palmer said he’d also seen people wondering about hate crime, or bias crime, charges.
Monday afternoon, Lincoln County District Attorney Jonathan H. Cable released a statement saying, at this point, he does not expect to file bias crime charges against those seven men.
He wrote, under Oregon law, a bias crime must include "…offensive physical contact, destruction of property or the threat of serious physical injury". In this case, he wrote, police prevented those things from occurring.
Amid a time of intense scrutiny aimed at police nationwide, Chief Palmer added this.
“We will take a hard stand against anybody that is trying to intimidate or cause harm to any individual, regardless of race, religion, creed, color, anything that you want to throw out there,” he said.