Thank God for the Second Amendment

This story was pushed off the top of the front page by the Clackamas Mall massacre yesterday, but it's still worth pondering.

Multnomah County prosecutors Tuesday filed robbery and weapons allegations against an 11-year-old Portland boy who police say tried to carjack and rob a woman at gunpoint last weekend.

 

The state Department of Human Services took the boy and his two younger siblings, a 4-year-old girl and 9-year-old boy, into protective custody Tuesday, as Portland police arrested the boy's father at their home in the 16100 block of Southeast Alder Street.

Members of the Portland police Gun Task Force led the boy's father, Joseph Daniel Charlton, 34, out of the home without incident about 10 a.m.

 

Charlton became the first person charged under a 2-year-old Portland ordinance that makes it a crime to leave a gun unsecured and within reach of a child.

 

Charlton, a convicted felon, is accused of endangering a child by allowing access to a firearm, a city code violation. He's also accused of being a felon in possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of a firearm and endangering the welfare of a minor.

 

Portland police records show that Charlton has been the subject of at least two prior child neglect and abuse complaints last year, on Jan. 24 and July 2. The Department of Human Services was notified, and someone was taken into state protective custody in July 2011, police records show.

 

Gene Evans, Human Services spokesman, said Tuesday he could not comment on the complaints, citing state privacy laws.

 

Charlton's 11-year-old son, now in foster care, will be arraigned in juvenile court today on allegations of first- and second-degree robbery and unlawful use of a firearm. He's the second youth younger than 12 to face juvenile weapons charges in Portland this year.

 

Police said the 11-year-old was armed with a loaded .22-caliber derringer and threatened Amy Garrett, 22, in her pickup while she was parked at Freedom Foursquare Church about noon Saturday. Garrett said the 11-year-old and a 7-year-old boy, carrying a backpack with bullets, demanded her pickup, then money and her phone.

 

Garrett drove away. A woman who lives across the street called 9-1-1 when her son, also 11, ran home to report having seen a gun. Police caught the two boys and returned them to their parents.

 

The 11-year-old boy's home is next to the church.

 

The arrests resulted from the initial police interviews of the 11-year-old and prosecutors' review of police reports, authorities said.

 

Portland police Sgt. Pete Simpson said he did not know where in the home the 11-year-old suspect found the gun.

 

"We're trying to figure out who had possession of the derringer and how it got in the hands of an 11-year-old boy," Simpson said.

 

On Tuesday, a state child welfare worker helped lead the 4-year-old girl, her head concealed by the hood of her multicolored raincoat, out of her home and into a car to be taken into protective custody.

 

The 11-year-old boy was taken into protective custody at another location. The 9-year-old was taken into protective custody at school, officials said.

 

Simpson said the three children were removed from their parents because investigators deemed their home unsafe. "The overall conditions in the home, circumstances, are not healthy for kids," Simpson said.

 

Police said they have not taken action against the 7-year-old boy who was with the 11-year-old suspect. They are not related.

 

Neighbors gathered across the street from Charlton's home as officers searched the house and two pickups. No other firearms were found.

 

Andrea Brush, on-site manager of the Alder Royal Apartments across the street, pumped her fist in the air when she learned Charlton had been arrested.

 

"Parents need to be held liable," she said. "Those are minor children. The parents can't take care of them. Somebody's got to."

 

Several neighbors said they've had numerous run-ins with the 11-year-old boy and have complained unsuccessfully to his father.

 

Kevin George, who provides security for Freedom Foursquare Church and lives across the street, said he was relieved. "It's about time they did something," George said.

 

George said he has called police at least five times in the past 18 months regarding complaints of vandalism and trespassing involving the 11-year-old.

 

"I think the arrest will show the city that the Portland police and the court system are doing their job," George said.

 

"Adults keeping their weapons out of reach of children is not only basic common sense, in Portland, it is the law," Mayor Sam Adams, wrote in a message after the arrest.

 

The ordinance approved by Portland's City Council two years ago created a new crime: endangering a child by allowing access to a firearm.

 

Under the ordinance, an adult would be guilty of the crime if he failed to prevent access to a firearm, loaded or unloaded, to a child without permission or the permission of a parent or guardian.

 

The penalty increases to a maximum of 20 days in jail and a fine up to $750 if the child carries the firearm off the gun owner's premises -- as police said was done in Saturday's attempted robbery in the church lot.

 

Charlton was convicted of fourth-degree assault in February 2003, a Class C felony, court records show.

 

Penny Okamoto, executive director of Ceasefire Oregon, said she's wondered why the city law wasn't used until now. "I'm glad they're finally enforcing it," Okamoto said.

 

Okamoto said the case also raises the question as to who sold Charlton a gun, considering his felony past.

 

Okamoto added, "I'm just so grateful no one was injured in this case."