Portland Police are investigating after a family suffered what they call a racially motivated attack on Tuesday evening near Northeast Ninth Avenue and Killingsworth Street.
Patricia Garner, 62, and her daughter Foia Frazier, 32, told police they were loading three boys, ages 12, 11 and 7, into a car when a man on a bike approached them. The man then allegedly used pepper spray on the children and yelled racial slurs at the family.
Medical personnel responded and treated the boys, according to police.
Speaking on behalf of family, Laurel Carrasco said Thursday evening that while the children were treated on the scene, the oldest child was taken to the emergency room after the attack, though not by officials. "In fact it was so severe that when he got to the emergency room the medical professionals were choking from fumes the emanating from his body," said Carrasco. "He eventually needed to be sedated."
The boy was given several baths, including milk baths, Carrasco said, in an effort to remove the spray, which was oil based.
"It's bear spray," she said. "They found that out once they got to the hospital."
Initial reports said the victims were sprayed with bear spray but in a statement earlier Thursday, police said it was pepper spray.
Garner, Frazier and the boys are African American. Police say the alleged attacker is white. A press release from the Portland Police Bureau says, "The victims described the suspect as a white or Hispanic male in his mid-20s, 5'9" tall, 160 pounds, wearing black spandex-style bicycle clothing and a grey and black helmet. The suspect was riding a road-style bicycle (not a mountain bike), with a white box on the back of the bicycle."
The white box was found and turned into police by Frazier,
