Portland police have arrested a man who is suspected of plowing a van into several parked cars and hitting a bicyclist, then fleeing on foot and leading police on a search that lasted about two hours on Monday afternoon.
Joshua Hooper, 24, was arrested on suspicion of plowing a van into several parked cars and hitting a cyclist.Multnomah County Sheriff's Office
Joshua Hooper, 24, was arrested around 5:30 p.m. According to the Multnomah County Jail roster, he was booked on five counts of failure to perform duties of a driver when property is damaged, one of failure to perform duties of a driver to an injured person, one of third-degree assault, one of reckless endangerment and one of reckless driving.
Portland Police Sgt. Kevin Allen said around 2:57 p.m., an officer heard what sounded like a car crash near Northwest 22nd Avenue and Northwest Davis Street. She went to investigate and found two parked cars damaged.
Witnesses told police that the vehicle that hit the cars continued north on 22nd, so the officer tried to find the vehicle. At Northwest 22nd and Irving, the officer found a bicyclist that had been hit by the suspected vehicle. The suspect, later determined to be Hooper, then hit another parked vehicle, which hit two other parked vehicles. Allen said Hooper then allegedly left the vehicle and fled the scene on foot. He said the officer stopped to help the bicyclist, who was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
—Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com; @JRamakrishnanOR
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