People enjoying a late summer night at restaurants and bars around Southeast Portland’s Laurelhurst neighborhood found themselves caught in the middle of a wild police chase.
Social media lit up Friday night and early Saturday morning with reports of a large police presence in the Laurelhurst and Buckman neighborhoods, home to a busy business district that includes the popular Laurelhurst Theater.
On Reddit, users posted photos of smashed cars and recounted stories of police speeding through the neighborhood, canvassing the area for suspects.
On Saturday evening, the Portland Police Bureau revealed details from the wild incident.
It started with a traffic stop. At 11:06 p.m. Friday, officers stopped a car at Southeast 29th Avenue and Southeast Belmont Street. Portland Police were conducting proactive patrols as part of their “Summer Cool Down” mission, aimed at curbing gun violence.
During the stop, officers determined that one of the four people in the car, Aerion L. Purifoy, was a suspect in a previous armed robbery case and arrested him, police said.
As they made the arrest, officers noticed that there were multiple guns within reach of the three other people in the car. Officers “gave clear instructions to the occupants to ensure everyone’s safety,” police said.
The driver took off.
Police said they had anticipated the escape and had already set up a plan to deflate the car’s tires. The tactic worked, but the driver continued on deflated tires, driving “extremely recklessly, including speeding, despite the fact that no officers were in pursuit,” police said.
As they fled, the suspects allegedly threw guns out the window of the car, scattering them throughout the neighborhood. Police came back through to locate the guns, seizing five total, including those left in the car.
The driver crashed around the intersection of Southeast 26th Avenue and Southeast Ankeny Street, and all three occupants fled on foot.
Officers, who had been tracking the car by air, found one person in a nearby yard, and used a drone and canine unit to track a second person, who they found hours later, police said. Asantae A. Parris, 20, and Marcus T. Wright II, 25, were both arrested on suspicion of illegal gun charges as well as eluding police.
The third occupant of the car was never found. The Portland Police Bureau said the investigation is ongoing.
“While we cannot know for sure what could have happened, we have every reason to believe that this policework prevented one or more shootings,” Portland Police Chief Bob Day said in a news release. “There were a tremendous number of officers needed to achieve this outcome, and I appreciate the community’s understanding that other calls for service had to wait while we worked through this.”
©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit oregonlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
