Laser Strikes Against Police Aircraft Lead to Arrest

A Portland Police Bureau aircraft flying a support mission Saturday night was targeted by a man on the ground with a laser pointer.

It happened just before 10:00.

The unit was flying in Southeast Portland when they were hit by a laser pointer from the ground.

They immediately shared information with Portland Air Traffic Control so that other airplanes in the area would be alerted.

The airborne officers were also able to determine that the laser had come from somewhere in the vicinity of Southeast 162nd Avenue and Stark Street.

Officers from the Gresham Police Department were dispatched to the area and were able to identify a suspect.

David Martinez, 37, was arrested on chafges of unlawfully directing the light of a laser pointer and recklessly endangering another person.

Officers seized a laser pointer from Martinez as evidence.

Meanwhile, the plane was then hit by a second laser strike.

They again warned Portland Air Control and let officers on the ground know they believed it came from the area of Southeast 84th Avenue and Stark Street.

There officers found a seven-year-old boy with a laser pointer. They took the laser pointer, brought the seven-year-old to his mother, gave her the laser pointer and explained the dangers involved in what her son had been doing.

Aiming a laser pointer is a danger to pilots and against the law.