PORTLAND, Ore. – In a disturbing incident that has residents questioning the city's crumbling public safety, a naked man allegedly ripped a 7-year-old girl from her mother's arms at a popular Portland waterfront park Saturday night, sparking a chaotic struggle that ended only when the child's father and a group of brave bystanders stepped in to save her.
According to Portland police and eyewitness accounts, the attack unfolded at Tom McCall Waterfront Park around 7 p.m. on July 11. The suspect, identified as 31-year-old Daniel C. Vasey, was reportedly running through the park without clothes when he grabbed the young tourist from Michigan by the arm and tried to pull her away from her mother.
The mother held on desperately as the violent tug-of-war lifted the terrified little girl off the ground. That's when the girl's father and nearby strangers sprang into action, punching, kicking and prying the suspect's hands off the child. One good Samaritan even used pepper spray to subdue him. Vasey eventually fled into the Willamette River, where officers later found and arrested him.
Police confirmed they had received two 911 calls in the minutes leading up to the attack, one at 6:51 p.m. reporting the naked man running through the park and another at 6:55 p.m. after he allegedly tried to punch someone. But no officers were available. Every cop in the precinct was reportedly "tied up on other calls," leaving the family and parkgoers to fend for themselves for a critical 12 minutes.
The child escaped with only minor scratches thanks to the heroic intervention of ordinary Americans who refused to stand by. Vasey faces charges including attempted kidnapping, assault and more.
One local mother summed up the frustration felt by many in the city: "You're gonna need to prepare yourself for the absolute worst, because nobody's gonna come help you."
Portland, long plagued by rising crime, homelessness and progressive policies that critics say have handcuffed law enforcement, has seen repeated warnings about slow police response times. The incident comes amid ongoing debates over staffing shortages in the Portland Police Bureau following years of budget cuts and anti-police rhetoric in the wake of the 2020 riots."God bless every single person who jumped into that fight," one witness said. "We do not have to live like this."
