A 32-year-old man is accused of shooting a passenger seated in another car after the passenger’s door had bumped his Mercedes parked beside it, according to police and prosecutors.
Police arrested Cole Tyler Miller and seized five AR-15 rifles, three handguns and a so-called ghost gun that resembled a Glock 19, as well as ammunition, a laser sight and rifle scope, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in court Friday. Miller is a convicted felon, having previously been convicted of possessing methamphetamine in 2017.
The shooting occurred at 5:37 a.m. Feb. 1 at 10540 E. Burnside St.
The man shot, William Blanchfield, told police that he had accidentally hit the Mercedes with the passenger door as he opened it and got into the passenger side of the car parked beside it, the affidavit said.
A short time later, the driver of the Mercedes stepped out, struck Blanchfield’s passenger window with a handgun and then shot him without warning, deputy district attorney Rachna H. Hajari wrote in a probable cause affidavit filed in court.
As he was riding in an ambulance to Oregon Health & Science University Hospital, Blanchfield told a paramedic, “In case I die, I want someone to know that it was Cole Miller who shot me,” the affidavit said. Police and prosecutors did not describe the wounds Blanchfield suffered.
Miller and Blanchfield have known each other for a couple of years, as both had dated the mother of Blanchfield’s child, according to the affidavit.
Last week, Miller again was reported to have pointed a black handgun at a clerk from a Plaid Pantry on Southeast Woodstock Boulevard after he had been told to leave because he was trying to microwave his own food in the convenience store, the affidavit said. The clerk described to police the suspect’s white Mercedes 500 with white rims and tinted windows.
Police located Miller on Thursday in the 3700 block of Southeast 42nd Avenue. Miller told officers that the firearms in his car belonged to friends, according to the affidavit.
Miller is accused of attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault with a firearm, unlawful use of a weapon, being a felon in possession of a firearm. He’s being held at the Multnomah County Detention Center on more than $520,000 bail.
