An Oregon mental patient who hijacked a minivan and escaped despite his restraints during transport Wednesday was rescued and recaptured Friday after getting stuck in a pond.
Portland Fire & Rescue responded to reports of a person immured in a pond near Portland’s Heron Lakes Golf Club at around 8:17 a.m. PDT, according to the Oregon State Police.
Unaware of the man’s identity in the pond, the rescuers moved to use ropes to secure him. In a thread on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, PFR said that the trapped person was about 75 feet from solid ground, stuck in the mud beneath the six inches of water atop the pond.
PFR also indicated that the man had been trying to swim across the pond and had been trapped for over twelve hours. OSP, who identified the man as an escaped mental patient, convicted felon and criminal suspect Christopher Pray, 39, said he had sunk in up to his armpits.
By 9:17 a.m., Mr. Pray was back on terra firma and on his way to the local Legacy Emanuel Medical Center. Mr. Pray provided a fake name at the hospital, but a perceptive hospital worker identified him. Afterward, the Portland Police Bureau came and took Mr. Pray into their custody, the OSP said.
Neither the fire department nor OSP disclosed whether or not Mr. Pray was still bound by his restraints, which he was wearing at the time of his escape.
Mr. Pray had been moved from the Multnomah County Jail near Portland to the Oregon State Hospital in Salem on Wednesday after a trial judge found him unable to participate in his own defense.
Mr. Pray was in police custody as a suspect on multiple charges regarding a March 12, 2022 incident. Charges included attempted aggravated murder, assault, robbery and possession of a firearm by a felon.
Mr. Pray did not take long to get into an altercation with another patient at the state mental facility and had been transported to a local emergency room for treatment.
It was on his way back to the mental hospital that Mr. Pray commandeered the white Dodge Caravan he was in, injuring a mental hospital worker and driving off at around 10:30 p.m., Oregon State Hospital spokesperson Amber Shoebridge told the Associated Press.
Oregon State Police said that, at the time of his escape, Mr. Pray was bound by handcuffs, leg shackles and a belly chain, all three of which were connected to each other by another restraint.
After OSP learned about the escape at around 10:45 p.m., they rushed out to U.S. Interstate 5, attempting to stop Mr. Pray as he drove southbound. The spike strips put down by the local Salem Police Department failed, a department spokesperson told the Oregonian, and Mr. Pray escaped.
By Friday, however, he had ended up farther north, at a pond back in Portland. OSP continues to investigate the full circumstances of his escape, including how Mr. Pray traveled back north. OSP did not say what happened to the hijacked mental hospital transport van.
In addition to the March 12, 2022, incident that left one woman injured, Mr. Pray is also accused of firing a gun while purportedly robbing an auto parts store on March 21, 2022, and is further alleged to have repeatedly assaulted a different woman multiple times in 2022, according to the Oregonian.
Mr. Pray has at least 16 prior felony convictions, including first-degree robbery, smuggling contraband into prison, having a gun while being an inmate and resisting arrest, per the Oregonian.
His most recent escape was also not his first; Mr. Pray previously attempted fleeing arrest in June and August 2022, according to Fox News.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.