Accused child criminal, and two other children, taken into protective custody
The father of an 11-year-old boy accused of trying to carjack and rob a woman at gunpoint Saturday is in jail on allegations of being a felon in possession of a firearm and endangering a child by allowing his son access to a firearm.
Joseph Daniel Charlton, 34, of outer Southeast Portland was arrested Tuesday, Dec. 11, after the Portland Police Bureau's Gun Task Force served a search warrant at his home, 16111 S.E. Alder St., and searched his vehicles, at about 10 a.m., said Sgt. Pete Simpson, Portland Police spokesman.
No additional firearms were recovered during the search.
In addition to the man's 11-year-old son, who is accused of Saturday's crimes, the Oregon Department of Human Services took two other children into protective custody. One is a 4-year-old girl who was at the home where the warrant was served. The other is a 9-year-old boy who was elsewhere. All three children are siblings.
Multnomah County Animal Control also removed a dog and a cat from the residence.
Charlton, who is a convicted felon, also was arrested on allegations being a felon in possession of a firearm and unlawful possession of a firearm. He is being held on $12,500 bail at the Multnomah County Detention Center. His arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 12.
Police are still investigating Saturday's robbery attempt in which Charlton's 11-year-old son and a 7-year-old boy are accused of of trying to carjack a 22-year-old woman who was sitting in her truck in a church parking lot at about 12:15 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8.
The Freedom Foursquare Church where the attempted carjacking took place is about a block away from Charlton's home.
The victim, Ami Garrett, 22, of Southeast Portland, said the boys told her they got the gun from their parents.
Garrett also credited another 11-year-old boy for police arriving at the scene of the attempted carjacking just as she was fleeing the scene. They were responding to the boy's report of another 11-year-old boy having a loaded gun near the 16000 block of Southeast Alder Street.
There, police contacted the two young suspects on the south side of the church.
The older boy ignored police who told him to keep his hands out of his pockets. Police grabbed his arms and in his pocket found a cocked and loaded .22-caliber handgun.
Garrett told police she'd been sitting in her truck in the church parking lot waiting for her parents, who were in church, when the boys approached her vehicle. They demanded her truck, and when she refused, they demanded her phone and money. When she questioned whether the gun was real, they reportedly showed her the bullets.
She eventually sped away while calling 9-1-1 and reported seeing the older boy aiming the gun at her as she took off.
The suspects were so young, they couldn't be taken to the Donald E. Long Juvenile Detention Home, where most juvenile crime suspects are lodged. The minimum age to be lodged there is 12, so police had to release them into the custody of their parents.