Battle Ground man’s wheelchair damaged at concert

A Battle Ground man with muscular dystrophy had the arm of his motorized wheelchair broken Tuesday evening at a Drake concert in Portland.

Stephen Johnson, 29, was at the Moda Center when a fight broke out near him. Several people were beating up someone and shoved the person at Johnson, breaking the arm on his wheelchair. He also was bruised and discovered that his cellphone was taken.

“I’m so angry about it,” said his father, Karl Johnson, a middle school teacher in the Battle Ground district. “The caveat here is, nobody did anything.”

No one apparently stepped in to stop the altercation, and when his son went to authorities, he said, they “blew him off.” Although Stephen Johnson was not able to get his phone back, his cellphone provider replaced it for free.

The incident goes against what Karl Johnson teaches his students: “Defend the defenseless.

“That’s what you’ve always got to do,” he said.

The chair is custom-made and the arm that broke off contains its control stick, which moves the chair. Although he duct-taped the arm back on, the chair will have to be replaced.

“The chair was already worn out,” Karl Johnson said.

He said his son frequently attends concerts and saved up money to see Drake.