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Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson asked District Attorney Nathan Vasquez on Monday to release security footage of a stabbing that took place outside the Central Library in downtown Portland on Aug. 25.
Vega Pederson’s request comes amid conflicting reports about what happened that day. In court records, officers of the Portland Police Bureau said a 44-year-old man intervened in a conflict among young adults just outside of the library and was subsequently attacked. Officers arrested three people, ages 18 to 21.
“There seems to be a serious discrepancy between the video I saw, reports from library and security staff, and how this incident was reported by PPB and subsequently some of the media,” Vega Pederson said in a statement. “To date, what has been shared publicly appears to rush to judgment around a serious incident involving young Black people despite the existence of video footage and statements that are more complicated.”
Vega Pederson did not elaborate on what discrepancies she believes exist.
County Commissioner Meghan Moyer said she emailed DA Vasquez late last week and asked to see the video because she was concerned about how the incident was being described by police and the press.
The Portland Metro Chamber, a business lobby, has been harshly critical of the Multnomah County Library system, saying that it’s been cavalier about violent events near the Central Library and unwilling to change policies to, among other things, install metal detectors at entrances.
“Just two months after a deadly shooting at that library which rocked our community, another victim was stabbed multiple times by assailants,” Metro Chamber president Andrew Hoan said in a statement after the stabbing. “Today, we learned that once again, the attackers came from inside with undetected weapons.”
Moyer has defended the library’s approach, saying that the police are responsible for keeping the streets around the building safe.
“Because this was seen as a library failure, I asked to see the footage, and I didn’t see what I had expected to see,” Moyer said in an interview. “There was no conflict and no issue among the young adults.”
The victim, Zebulin Hannon, who, on Aug. 27, told Fox 12 that one of his assailants was “vicious,” started yelling at the group from across the street, Moyer says, provoking the incident.
Just hours after Vega Pederson released her statement, Vasquez’s office announced that a grand jury had indicted the three people on charges related to the stabbing, including assault, menacing, and unlawful use of a weapon. They are: Anthony Michael Nicholas, Ja’Riyah La Quice Williams and Daviana E. Anderson.
Vasquez said in a statement that the library possessed the same security footage and that she could direct the library to release it.
“If the chair believes the video should be made public immediately, she is within her authority to direct the library, a county department, to release it,” Vasquez said. “It is not the role of the district attorney’s office to try criminal cases via press releases, headlines, or social media commentary.”
Vasquez added that “all video footage was presented to the grand jury for their consideration. After presentation of the evidence, the grand jury returned an indictment for the defendants.”
Late in the day, Vega Pederson said the video in question would be available on thumb drives to members of the press, if picked up before 6:30 pm today.
Vega Pederson joins another of her colleagues, County Commissioner Shannon Singleton, in asking for the public release of more information. After the incident, Singleton asked the DA to “convene a grand jury and Portland Police Bureau to review the video and update their statements to more accurately reflect what happened.”
The violent incident sparked a tiff between Vega Pederson and Metro Chamber president Hoan, who blamed it on what he characterized as meager safety measures taken by the county’s library system.
“How many more people must be hurt or killed until the county takes decisive action?” Hoan said at the time.
