CLACKAMAS, Ore - Investigators said they have two "persons of interest" who they want to question in the case of a 12-year-old boy who was beaten, tied up with his own shoelaces and pushed down a hillside last week.
The attack happened on June 6 along SE 82nd Avenue, near the Clackamas Aquatic Center, according to the Clackamas County Sheriff’s office. The boy was not seriously injured but it took him two hours to squirm his way up the hillside where a passing motorist found him curled up under the guardrail just south of Toys R Us.
Investigators said the boy told them he’d had a shoving match with the two a few weeks earlier outside the Aquatic Center, but did not know the names of his attackers.
On Tuesday, KGW news partner the Oregonian learned that police had the names of two teens who they planned to interview in connection with the attack. They described the persons of interest as being around the same age as the victim. If arrested and convicted, the most serious charges they could face are kidnapping and assault.
The victim said he encountered two other boys outside the aquatic center around 7 p.m. last Wednesday. He said they grabbed him, carried him into a treed area, tied his hands and feet with his own shoelaces, then rolled him down a nearby hill. He spent the next two hours trying get up the hill to the roadway in hopes someone would see him.
Passing motorist Mi'Lane Cremeans spotted the boy along the roadside around 9:30 p.m., and stopped to help.
"This boy was tied up from his feet, bound to his hands, in a curled up position, saying that some boys had beat him up and tossed down this ditch," she told KGW.
The victim has also been working with a police sketch artist as part of the investigation, to help identify his attackers.
