A 31-year-old man who targeted more than half a dozen women by groping or chasing them through one of Portland’s most iconic parks faced a reckoning when the women — a “sisterhood” of strangers, according to one victim — surrounded the man, stopping him in his tracks.
“We just started hitting, punching, scratching, pulling his hair, pulling on his clothes — everything,” said a 74-year-old victim, whom The Oregonian/OregonLive is not naming because of the nature of the crime. Seconds earlier she had kicked the man off her as he tried to crawl on top of her.
“I didn’t feel in any danger because the sisterhood was there,” the woman continued.
One force that was conspicuously absent, however, was Portland police.
It’d be 31 minutes before the first officers arrived at Council Crest Park to arrest the man, who targeted woman after woman on an unseasonably sunny and warm afternoon April 9, according to emergency communications logs released to The Oregonian/OregonLive this week.
Records show a 911 call-taker spent about three minutes gathering necessary information and relaying that to police — meaning the police response took another 28 minutes, in what victims described as an excruciating wait.
Police spokesperson Mike Benner said “significant” staffing shortages are ongoing and have frustrated victims and police alike. He pointed to widespread criticism that police response times are unacceptable. He also noted that Police Chief Bob Day has frequently said that the city has insufficient funds to hire more officers.
The average response time to high-priority calls in April, when the man attacked the women at Council Crest, averaged about 17 minutes. That grew to about 20 minutes in June, according to a city report.
“Our officers (and dispatchers) work hard every day to respond as quickly as possible, but the reality is that our current staffing levels limit our ability to meet the level of service our community deserves,” Benner said in an email Wednesday.
Grabbed, ‘body checked’ and straddled
April 9 seemed like countless other pleasant spring days over the years at Council Crest in Southwest Portland. At an elevation of 1,073 feet, the 43-acre park is one of the city’s highest publicly accessible viewpoints and a frequent destination of residents for its sweeping views of the city, Washington County and at least five mountains: Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, Mount Adams, Mount Hood and Mount Jefferson.
Portland resident Zoee Shearer, 28, told The Oregonian/OregonLive that she had stepped one foot out of a car she had been riding in when she saw the man, 31-year-old Ayman Elkholy of Beaverton, make a beeline toward her.
Shearer, who agreed to be named in this story, said she is a model and was wearing an ornate bra top and a tutu skirt that exposed her midriff for a photo shoot at the park that day.
Elkholy grabbed one of her breasts and her waist and wouldn’t let go, Shearer said. She said she broke free, but Elkholy proceeded to chase her around the park and succeeded at laying hands on her midsection several more times.
This was despite the efforts of the 43-year-old clothing designer who had arrived at the photo shoot with Shearer, according to police reports. The designer told police that Elkholy “body checked” her and wouldn’t stop even though she pulled on the back of his shirt. She said she used a pop-up changing tent to fend him off.
Meanwhile, Shearer said, Elkholy made “terrifying” statements, such as “I need it. I need it. Every bone in my body, I need it.”
“We were both screaming and cussing at him, telling him to stop,” Shearer said. She said Elkholy only gave up after their photographer — a man — arrived and intervened.
Next, court documents say, Elkholy turned his attention to two other women, ages 31 and 32, who had been warned by members of the photo shoot to beware of Elkholy. One of the women told police that Elkholy marched up to within a foot of them, prompting one of them to strike him with a water bottle when he wouldn’t back off.
Elkholy eventually approached the 74-year-old woman and her 45-year-old daughter, who had been lying on a blanket, soaking up the afternoon sun. Next to them was their 55-pound German shepherd-pitbull mix, but that didn’t stop Elkholy, the woman said.
The woman said all of a sudden Elkholy was on his knees, straddling her lower legs and possibly attempting to move up her body.
“I’m thinking, ‘I’m 74, get the frick off me!’” said the woman.
She said she kicked him, her daughter shoved him and the dog began barking and snarling.
“And then all these other women started running over. They were whaling on him,” said the woman. “We all just pounced on the guy.”
Among the good Samaritans were the two women who were approached by Elkholy and struck him with their water bottle, the 74-year-old said.
Court documents say Elkholy put one of the two women in a chokehold and threw her to the ground, injuring her jaw. He then lay on top of her, making “weird moaning noises,” the woman’s friend told investigators. The friend said she repeatedly struck Elkholy, who only walked away after she cast Elkholy’s water bottle aside and he went to retrieve it.
Witnesses said Elkholy approached other women, punching one hard enough to draw blood.
The 74-year-old woman’s daughter was the first to call 911, according to emergency call logs.
Police response struggles on busy days
In all, four separate people called 911 — first at 2:13 p.m., then at 2:24 p.m. when police hadn’t arrived, then at 2:34 p.m. when they still hadn’t arrived and lastly at 2:38 p.m.
Officers appeared on scene six minutes later. They found the man, still in the park and with scratches on his face. They took him into custody.
Jaymee Cuti, a spokesperson for the city’s Bureau of Emergency Communications, which handles 911 calls, said a call-taker answered the first call “immediately.” A city audit in June shows that the bureau has filled more of its vacancies and dramatically shortened its 911 call wait times over the past four years, from an average of 77 seconds to an average of 18 seconds. That, however, was still below the national standard of answering 90% of calls within 15 seconds.
Records show the call-taker took about three minutes to gather information and categorize the first call as Priority 2, “Someone Could Get Hurt,” which encompasses instances in which someone is “acting violently” or there’s “a serious disturbance.”
It’s just one level below the highest level, Priority 1, “Danger to Life Right Now,” on a seven-level scale.
Day, the police chief, said at a news conference earlier this week that the city continues to struggle to meet demand during peak times, such as the evening of July 4, when there were “over 100 calls for service in the queue with no responders available.” Day said that was despite spending an estimated $100,000 in overtime.
Voters might get to weigh in on solutions this November, as supporters of two measures that could boost police staffing levels announced they’d collected the necessary number of signatures to place the measures on the ballot. But officials must certify those signatures first. One measure also is encountering pushback from activists who don’t want money destined for the city’s clean energy fund to be diverted to police.
Benner, the police spokesperson, said slow response times “can leave community members feeling unsupported, especially the victims,” like the ones on April 9 at Council Crest.
After Elkholy’s arrest, he told jail staff that he was high on LSD. He had no prior criminal history.
Elkholy was scheduled to go to a three-day trial in Multnomah County Circuit Court this week. Instead, he pleaded guilty to three counts of harassment and one count of attempted strangulation. A charge of third-degree sexual abuse was dismissed.
He was sentenced to two years of probation and 80 hours of community service. He also was ordered to undergo evaluations to identify if he has drug, psychological or sexual problems — and to undergo any treatment if deemed necessary.
Shearer, the model who was grabbed and groped, said she had hoped that Elkholy would be ordered to mandatory inpatient treatment. She said her body shakes uncontrollably and tears start falling when she talks about what happened.
“I just feel like now when I go to a local park, I have to constantly be watching people,” Shearer said. “This man looked like he was completely normal. He looked like no threat at all, and he was a huge threat.”
Elkholy is “very remorseful,” said his defense attorney, Andy Green. Elkholy apologized during his sentencing hearing Tuesday.
Shearer said that doesn’t lessen what Elkholy did, but it did bring her some solace.
“His voice was very shaky, and it sounded like he was crying,” Shearer said. “I do appreciate that at least he felt bad for his actions.”
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