A Portland court has acquitted a black man in connection with a stabbing in the Old Town neighborhood after the victim was captured on video using a racial slur.
The charge carried a Measure 11 sentence of nearly six years in state prison. Gary O. Edwards, a 43-year-old black man, was acquitted of all charges after spending three months in jail before the trial.
Edwards was initially charged with second-degree assault for stabbing Gregory A. Howard Jr., also 43, a white man, on Northwest 5th Avenue near the Union Station MAX stop on the morning of July 7, according to The Oregonian.
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Yahoo report: During the trial, Edwards admitted to stabbing Howard Jr. in self-defense, citing Howard Jr.’s aggressive behavior. He testified that Howard Jr. began shouting a racial slur at him as soon as he saw him, which Howard Jr. denied.
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Transit camera footage captured Edwards with a fixed-blade knife in his hand as he approached Howard Jr., who was sitting on a bench, according to The Oregonian. While the video had no sound, Howard Jr. sprang up and began pushing Edwards. The two scuffled against a wall, and Edwards ended up stabbing Howard Jr. in the shoulder.
Both Edwards and Howard Jr. have prior arrest records and were homeless at the time of the stabbing.
Edwards was convicted of attempted second-degree assault in 2021 and served three years for a 2020 stabbing at the Skidmore Fountain MAX platform. A separate fourth-degree assault charge was dismissed this year because no public defender was available.
Howard has been arrested multiple times and was convicted of felony child rape in Washington in 1997, according to his records.
Defense attorney Daniel Small said security officers overheard the altercation and captured Howard Jr. shouting racial slurs at Edwards on their body cameras, according to The Oregonian.
Smalls said that Edwards intended to trade his pocket knife to Howard Jr. for cigarettes.
“What other than racism could explain why Mr. Howard perceived hatred, animosity and aggression from a complete stranger?” Small asked the jury Oct. 30.
Prosecutor Katherine Williams argued that it did not matter what Howard Jr. said after the stabbing, and that Edwards was always “in control” during the argument.
“The defendant is not scared for his life. He didn’t retreat, he sauntered up — and he sauntered away after he stabbed someone,” Williams told the jury, per The Oregonian. “The defendant created the situation.”
