Neighbors in southeast Bend recall morning shooter fired rounds into the air before escaping

Published 5:00 pm Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Police are still searching for a man who walked around a southeast Bend neighborhood firing a handgun in the air early Saturday before fleeing through people’s yards and escaping. Sheila Miller, spokesperson for the Bend Police Department, said a semi-automatic handgun was recovered by the Central Oregon Emergency Response Team after a search of the area. The brand and caliber of the handgun are being withheld while the search continues, she said. ”It’s illegal to shoot a gun in city limits,” Miller said Tuesday. “It doesn’t matter if it is at a sign or up in the air or at a person, it is illegal and it is dangerous. Bullets that go up, come back down, so they will be dangerous no matter what direction they are fired in.”

Police were dispatched to an area around Parrell and Badger roads at 2:38 a.m. Saturday after 911 callers reported a man firing a gun indiscriminately into the air. Officers tracked the man to Silver Sage Street before losing him.

Sam Utley and his family live right on Benham Road not far from where it intersects with Silver Sage Street, and where the police mobilized during the search for the shooter.

“It was a combination of high drama excitement, and ‘oh, this is happening in our neighborhood,’ a little bit of uneasiness,” Utley said.

Utley said he woke up to his dog, Cozmo, barking at the neighbor’s fence at 3:30 a.m. Saturday. While it isn’t uncommon for Cozmo to bark in the middle of the night, Utley said, he knew something was off when the dog went and hid behind the garden shed in the backyard.

“I’ve never seen him hide before,” Utley said of Cozmo. “And it just sort of happened to be the timing with where they were searching for him (the shooter).”

After waking to Cozmo barking, Utley heard something peculiar.

“I heard what sounded like someone going through cans at 3:30 in the morning,” he said. “At the time I didn’t really think that much of it.” Now Utley thinks the fleeing gunman passed near his house as he fled from police.

“Potentially. I can’t say that for sure. I cannot say this person was over there, but the timing lined up,” Utley said.

Utley was one of the neighbors who called dispatch. He figured his information wasn’t going to be that helpful, but he was surprised by how eager the dispatcher was to hear from him.

At about 6 a.m. Utley said he saw the police vans pull up in front of the house across the street. Soon enough the police were on megaphones telling residents to remain in their homes with their doors locked as they searched the area with dogs, he said.

Utley said he was a bit nervous by the action given that his wife and infant son, Calvin, were at home at the time.

Randi Gehring lives on Silver Sage Street not far from Utley. Gehring said she was up that night watching television when she heard what sounded like fireworks.

“I heard like four shots up there, and there was a pause and then I thought they shot off, I thought it was like 10, fireworks. So, I didn’t think anything of it,” Gehring said. “But the thing that woke me up was, I was in bed, we always have our TVs on, and I heard someone crash into my fence, I thought. It was just a big bump.”

On Monday Bend Police provided surveillance photos of the suspect, who was wearing a blue jacket, blue jeans and a gray backpack, police said in a statement. Anyone with information is asked to contact Cpl. Scott Salvage at 541-640-6319.