Russell Courtier a 38 year old Oregon man and self described white supremacist has been charged with murder after deliberately running over 19 year old black teen with his Jeep after an altercation outside a local 7-Eleven.
Courtier, who has a tattoo of ‘EK’ on his calf denoting membership of the white supremacist prison gang European Kindred, allegedly pushed Bruce’s head into the shop’s front window.
The victim is 19-year-old Larnell Bruce Jr. His father says Bruce Jr. was visiting his biological mother in Gresham when he was killed.
The victim was charging his cellphone at a Gresham 7-Eleven on August 10, just before midnight when a couple pulled up. Courtier was behind the wheel of his red Jeep Wrangler.
Police say it all began with a fight outside a 7-Eleven on 188th Avenue and Burnside Street in Gresham on Wednesday, Aug. 10. Witnesses reported seeing some kind of weapon being brandished, followed by Bruce running away from a driver behind the wheel of a red Jeep Wrangler.
Police are still trying to determine exactly what happened but they say that the men did not previously know each other.
The verbal confrontation quickly turned physical with Courtier slamming the teens head into the glass storefront window, breaking it.
“Get him, baby,” Colleen Hunt, Russell Courtier’s girlfriend called to her boyfriend during the fight, say witnesses. “Get him, baby!”
Bruce was able to fight off his attacker, pulling a machete which scared Courtier back into his vehicle. It was then that witnesses heard Hunt, the girlfriend, tell her boyfriend to run the victim over.
Bruce attempted to avoid the vehicle speeding towards him, even going so far as to run into oncoming traffic.
“The video surveillance showed Mr. Bruce take evasive maneuvers on foot in an attempt to escape Mr. Courtier’s Jeep,” the affidavit said.
cubiclane.com
