Photo: ABIGAIL DOLLINS/STATESMAN JOURNAL/USA TODAY NETWORK
Four people are dead and at least two more injured after a man allegedly drove his vehicle into a homeless encampment in Salem, Ore., over the weekend.
Around 2 a.m. Sunday, Salem authorities received reports of a car accident downtown. Upon arrival, responders learned that a two-door sports coupe had veered off the road and collided with an unsheltered homeless camp, pinning two people beneath the vehicle.
Two people staying at the encampment were pronounced dead on the scene. Four more people were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, two of whom later died. The current condition of the survivors remains unknown, according to anews releasefrom the Salem Police Department.
On Sunday evening, Salem authorities identified the driver as Enrique Rodriguez Jr., 24, who was booked into the Marion County Jail after also receiving medical treatment. He is charged with four counts of first-degree manslaughter, six counts of reckless endangerment, one count of second-degree assault, and one count of third-degree assault.
Jimmy Jones, executive director of Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency, tells PEOPLE that Sunday’s accident comes on the heels of a particularly “crushing” two-year period for Salem’s homeless residents — fraught with a pandemic, natural disasters and extreme-weather events.
“It felt like we were mostly out of the woods,” Jones says. “And then just when it feels like we’re getting to the other side, this happened.”
Three men pray for victims of the fatal car crash.ABIGAIL DOLLINS/STATESMAN JOURNAL/USA TODAY NETWORK
“One of the big questions people don’t ask is, ‘Why are people camping that close to a roadway?’ And they do that because there really is no other place for them to camp,” Jones says, noting that Oregon residents without homes have very limited options for where they can legally rest their heads.
In the case of the homeless encampment wrecked over the weekend, an estimated 10 to 12 people were sleeping on a small, triangle median alongside the road because it was one of the few locations where they wouldn’t be forced away for trespassing.
Jones says the crash has inflicted trauma on the tight-knit group of people sleeping there who have become like family with one another.
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For social workers and community volunteers who work with homeless populations, the loss of life hits just as hard.
“It’s very painful, you know, because these folks are part of our family, too,” Jones says. “They come into the day center, they check their mail, they do their laundry, they take a shower, they sit down and they eat a meal, they talk to us about their past and their hopes and dreams for the future. And then the next day, they’re just gone.”
Jones hopes to see the public’s attitude move away from viewing homeless people as criminals who refuse to follow the rules of civilized society, adding that “their survival is more important than the rest of society’s inconvenience.”
It is unclear if Rodriguez has entered a plea yet or obtained an attorney who can speak to the charges on his behalf.
source: people.com
