On the evening of May 25, 1992, a 25-year-old male named Kevin Waldner was at his residence located at 4805 N. Borthwick in Portland, Oregon. While in his kitchen washing dishes, he was startled to find an unknown man standing in his dining room. Waldner asked the intruder if he could help him, to which the man replied "no." As the stranger turned towards the front door, Waldner moved closer and noticed that the man was armed with what appeared to be a sawed-off rifle.
The intruder then
pointed the weapon at Waldner, instigating a struggle for the gun. Waldner grabbed the barrel of the rifle, and the two men wrestled for control. When Waldner let go of the firearm, the assailant stepped back and shot him in the stomach. The gunman then fled the scene. Despite the life-threatening injury, Kevin Waldner survived the attack.
The shooting of Waldner was the final act in a violent crime spree that had terrorized the city over the Memorial Day weekend. Law enforcement officials believe the same individual is responsible for two homicides that occurred in the preceding days. On May 22, Fou Saechao, a 43-year-old man, was shot and killed while stocking shelves at a market on N. Interstate Ave. Early in the morning on May 25, just hours before the attack on Waldner, 31-year-old Anthony Lesina was found shot to death near a phone booth, also on N. Interstate Ave. A witness reported seeing a male flee the scene in Lesina's car.
The suspect in these violent crimes is described as an African-American male, estimated to be in his late teens to early twenties. He was said to be between 5'6" and 5'9" tall and weighed between 140 and 160 pounds. At the time of the incidents, he was reportedly wearing a long black athletic-style jacket and a black baseball cap with white lettering. Despite the detailed description of the suspect, there have been no arrests in the case, and the identity of the man responsible for the murder of two men and the attempted murder of Kevin Waldner remains unknown.
