Police: Transient slashes 14 tires in Bend parking garage

(Update: Police release details, charges; tally up to 14)

A transient roused from sleeping in Bend’s downtown parking garage, knife in hand, Wednesday afternoon allegedly slashed the tires of nearly a dozen cars parked there before leaving and was caught nearby, police said.

Shortly before 2 p.m., employees at the adjacent Oxford Hotel called police to report a transient was sleeping with a knife in his hand in the stairwell of the city’s Centennial Parking Plaza Garage at 61 Northwest Oregon Avenue, said Lt. Clint Burleigh.

The workers asked the man to leave and watched him do so through the third floor of the parking garage, Burleigh said.

Moments later, several cars were found to have slashed tires, a number that over the ensuing hours rose to at least 11 tires on 11 different vehicles. Witnesses heard air hissing out of the tires, Burleigh said. NewsChannel 21’s Jessie Foster counted 14 cars with a flattened tires in her visit to the parking garage’s third floor.

Based on the hotel employees’ descriptions, Zachary Glenn Mathews, 38, was stopped in the 100 block of Northwest Greenwood Avenue and taken into custody, booked into the Deschutes County Jail on several first- and second-degree criminal mischief charges.

Burleigh said they expect additional charges will be added, as more victims with damaged tires are found.

“This incident has caused a significant inconvenience for several people attending different events in the area of downtown Bend,” Burleigh wrote.

Online court records show Mathews is scheduled to go on trial next week on charges of unlawful use of a weapon and menacing, accused of threatening two people with a knife in July of last year.

Downtown merchants have been pressing police and city officials lately to deal with harassment and other issues involving transients and other people causing problems in the area this summer, making many downtown visitors feel unsafe.

Foster is gathering information and will have a report on NewsChannel 21 First at Ten on Fox.