The man accused of shooting and wounding two Portland police officers has multiple open cases against him, including armed robbery and vandalism of a Black-owned business in Salem years ago.

Eric Floyd Oelkers allegedly fired seven shots at two Portland Police Bureau officers on Jan. 19 after the pair tried to question him about reportedly threatening another man with a knife, court filings released Tuesday show.

One of the bullets hit an officer in the thigh and shattered his femur, the probable cause affidavit filed by the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office said. Two more struck the other officer in one of his arms and near his neck, which took off a piece of his ear.

Investigators found seven shell casings at the scene, the filing said.

The details emerged on the heels of a weeklong manhunt that led to Oelkers’ arrest. A tipster told detectives that the photos of the shooting suspect looked like a man who had been damaging cars at a long-term parking facility near Portland International Airport.

The tipster said Oelkers had been “getting into confrontations with staff. She further reported that on one occasion, the man displayed a knife and a small, black handgun,” the filings said.

Detectives used the information to track Oelkers through TriMet surveillance footage. On Monday, they arrested him at a residence in Northeast Portland.

Oelkers faces two counts apiece of attempted murder, first-degree assault and unlawful use of a firearm. Those six felony charges are tied to the shooting.

It’s not Oelkers’ first run-in with the law. Court records show Oelkers also had a warrant related to a 2022 armed robbery. He’s charged with second-degree robbery, first-degree theft and menacing.

Dating back to 2003, court records show, he’s been convicted of felonies including third-degree robbery, coercion and tampering with a witness.

One open case Oelkers is facing involves vandalizing Epilogue Kitchen and Cocktails, a restaurant owned by Jonathan Jones, a Black man, in Salem.

Jones said Tuesday that his business faced so much racism that he couldn’t recall exactly which vandalism could be attributed to Oelkers. He said vandals routinely spraypainted the windows in front of the restaurant’s “Black Lives Matter” and “Hate Has No Home Here” signs.

In 2021, Jones emailed the Marion County District Attorney’s office about Oelkers’ behavior in the months leading up to his arrest. According to an email Jones provided to OPB, he told prosecutors that Oelkers confronted him on the streets of downtown Salem in November 2020 and told him to leave the city.

Jones also told the DA’s office that he saw Oelkers outside his restaurant again weeks later on Jan. 1, 2021, when groups like the Proud Boys and Vancouver, Washington-based group Patriot Prayer demonstrated outside its front doors. That encounter led to a full response by the Salem Police Department, newspaper archives show.

“He was part of that rally,” Jones told OPB. “He came back again New Year’s Day with that mob of people.”

Oelkers’ arrest for allegedly vandalizing Jones’ business came a month later, on Jan. 21, 2021, at a protest opposing the results of the 2020 Election, according to an article in The Register-Guard.

Oelkers faces two second-degree misdemeanor charges for criminal mischief and bias crime. According to court records, Oelkers “did unlawfully and knowingly, with intent to cause substantial inconvenience to, and because of the defendant’s perception of Jonathan Jones’ race tamper with a window.”

That case is still open. After skipping his court date, a judge issued an arrest warrant for Oelkers in October 2022. A representative with the Marion County DA‘s office said Tuesday that they expect Oelkers to be released to Marion County at some point.

Jones, after learning Oelkers was brought into custody after shooting at Portland police, said he was unnerved. He expressed frustration that the charges in Marion County remain unresolved after years.

“Seeing that he allegedly shot two cops, it’s terrifying that a person willing to do that is a person who confronted and threatened me,” Jones said.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/01/27/man-shot-portland-police-wanted-robbery-vandalism/