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CLEAR Temp: 34 °F Wind: CLM at 0 mph Wednesday, February 5, 2003 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA HomeLife Magazine W3 Magazine Jobs @ Mail Tribune Tempo A & E Oregon CarZone Wellness Connection Real Estate Newspaper in Education Prime Times Outdoor Journal Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Email Story to a Friend January 31, 2003 Attacks end with suicide, one arrest By ANITA BURKE Mail Tribune National Guard members intent on "cleaning up" Medford may have targeted homeless men, black youths and an Indian couple in a series of racially motivated crimes this month, Medford police said. Police believe a string of assaults and intimidation ended early Thursday with the arrest of two suspects and the suicide of another. The investigation continues, Medford police Lt. Mike Moran said. Police arrested Andrew Lee Patterson, 23, of the 500 block of South Shasta Avenue, Eagle Point, on charges of first-degree intimidation and fourth-degree assault after a Thursday attack on an Indian owner of a Medford motel. Patterson also faces first-degree kidnapping and first-degree assault charges related to the beating of a homeless man earlier this month in which the assailants cited "white pride" as a reason for the attack. Chad Ritchie, 21, of the 100 block of Ashland Street, Medford, ran from the motel where Thursday’s attack happened and was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a restaurant parking lot nearly two miles away, Moran said. At the 1st Battalion, 186th Infantry headquarters in Ashland, Capt. Chet Cary confirmed that the dead man was a National Guard member who was sent home early from peacekeeping duty on the Sinai Peninsula. He said the unit was preparing to present a color guard at Ritchie’s funeral. He referred other questions to the Guard company in Medford that Ritchie served with, but officials there didn’t return calls. Aaron Andrew St. James, 25, no address listed, was also arrested on second-degree assault charges. He is a member of the National Guard who just returned from the Sinai and couldn’t be connected with this month’s other race-related crimes because he was out of the country when they happened, investigators said. Patterson is lodged in the Jackson County Jail in lieu of $2,009,000 bail. St. James was also lodged and his bail set at $1 million. A 911 call from a guest at the Sis-Q Motel, 722 S. Riverside Ave., alerted police to a disturbance in the motel office at 3:05 a.m. Thursday. The caller reported hearing a woman scream for help and a loud bang that sounded like a gunshot. Officers found that the motel owner, a 24-year-old man of Indian descent, had responded to a doorbell that customers ring to enter the office. The man at the door pushed his way in and assaulted the motel owner, who escaped with scrapes and bruises as his wife screamed. The attacker had a large caliber handgun, but the banging sound was a door being kicked shut, Moran said. Investigators said the motel’s telephone system signaled the office that a 911 call had been made and that apparently startled the assailant, who ran away. When police arrived at the motel, Patterson and St. James were waiting in a car in the parking lot, Moran said. Patterson told police that he and Ritchie had set out to assault the owner of the Sis-Q Motel because they thought he was an Arab. If separated, they planned to meet at a nearby Shari’s restaurant. "This is a bias-related crime," Moran said. "Patterson drove and he knew Ritchie would assault the owner because of his ethnic origin." As the investigation continued, police got a report at about 3:45 a.m. of a man lying in the parking lot of a Shari’s restaurant, 71 Stewart Ave., apparently not breathing. When officers went there, they found Ritchie dead of a gunshot to his mouth from a large caliber handgun, Moran said. Police believe that Patterson and Ritchie had gone out before to attack homeless people. Moran said Patterson described the forays to investigators as "missions" intended to clean up the community. Detectives linked Patterson and Ritchie to a race-related attack under investigation, Moran said. On Jan. 10 and again Jan. 15, a homeless man reported that he had been attacked by two white men who called him a disgrace to his race and claimed to have "white pride." On Jan. 15, he was dragged down an embankment near Biddle Road and beaten with a club so badly he was hospitalized. Just a few hours before that attack, nearby at the Medford Center a group of black teenagers reported that several white men chased them, showed a gun and shouted about "white pride." Police believed the attack on the homeless man and the menacing of the black teens were related. Thursday, investigators linked Patterson and Ritchie to the Jan. 15 beating of the homeless man. Patterson was charged with first-degree assault and first-degree kidnapping, both Measure 11 crimes that carry minimum prison sentences. Police also think Patterson and Ritchie might be connected to an assault on a homeless man by the downtown Gospel Mission around midnight Thursday. The man later told police he fell down and wasn’t assaulted, but Moran said the investigation will continue. "Homeless victims are often uncooperative and fearful of police," he said. Therefore, police think there might be other unreported attacks. Anyone with information on such crimes can call detectives Bill Ford or Justin Ivens at 774-2230. Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4459, or e-mail [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy webmaster feedback A D V E R T I S E R S