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Salem police arrested three minors and two men accused of beating another man on the street in northeast Salem early Sunday morning.
Police said they seized a handgun from a 16-year-old suspect. They did not say what prompted the attack in a news release Sunday afternoon.
A police officer en route to work around 4:30 a.m. saw five young men physically assault a man in the area of Northeast Market Street and Northeast Hawthorne Avenue.“The suspects then quickly fled the area in a vehicle,” according to the Salem Police Department’s statement.
Salem police went looking for the vehicle, which a Marion County Sheriff’s Office deputy found around 20 minutes later near the intersection of Northeast Lancaster Drive and Northeast Center Street.
“The occupants of the involved vehicle were apprehended without incident,” police said in the statement. They found a handgun in the vehicle.
Horacio Chavez Soto, 20, and Manuel Contreras Rivera, 19, both of Salem, were arrested on accusations of riot and later released from jail.
Oregon law describes participating in a riot as engaging with five or more people in “tumultuous and violent conduct” and creating “a grave risk of causing public alarm.”
Three teens, two 16 and one 17, were detained and taken to the Marion County Juvenile Department on accusations of riot. One of the teens, a 16-year-old boy, is also accused of unlawful possession of a weapon.
The arrests come after Salem police said in a report on Nov. 13 that the city’s violent crime rate is declining after a steady increase over 10 years.
Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053.
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Ardeshir Tabrizian has covered criminal justice and housing for Salem Reporter since September 2021. As an Oregon native, his award-winning watchdog journalism has traversed the state. He has done reporting for The Oregonian, Eugene Weekly and Malheur Enterprise.
