Bend transient arrested in motor home arson, assault on owner with baseball bat

Also accused of smashing business, car windows; drugs believed to be factor

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – A Bend transient was arrested on assault, arson and other charges early Monday, accused of setting a blanket on fire in a motor home, attacking the motor home’s owner with a baseball bat, then smashing a nearby business and parked car’s window and door with it.

Deschutes County 911 dispatchers got a call just after 3 a.m. from someone reporting  women came to their motor home at a transient camp to report she’d been assaulted with a bat by a woman who lit her motor home on fire, then fled, Sgt. Tommy Russell said. The camp is located off Hunnell Road, between Cooley and Loco roads, he added.

Bend police, firefighters and Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies responded and found an older, apparently unoccupied Winnebago motor home engulfed in flames, Russell said.

The alleged victim, a 36-year-old transient, said she’d allowed another female transient, a 32-year-old acquaintance, to sleep in her motor home for the night, since it was cold and she sleeps in a tent. One slept in the rear of the motor home and the other in the front.

Around 3 a.m., the motor home owner awakened to the smell of smoke, looked out into the motor home’s main cabin and saw a blanket on fire, Russell said.

The woman grabbed the blanket and began dragging it out the side door when she said she was attacked from behind, struck several times with a baseball bat in the back of the head, the back and left arm. The woman fell out onto the sidewalk and dropped the burning blanket, then ran to the neighboring motor home to get help.

The alleged victim was taken by ambulance to St. Charles Bend for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

Another Bend officer responding to the incident spotted a woman bashing out the window of a business near Empire Avenue and Jamison Street with a baseball bat, then beating on the window and door of a parked car with the baseball bat, Russell said.

The officer told the woman to drop the bat, and she eventually did and was taken into custody without further incident, the sergeant said. The woman’s clothing was singed, and the officer realized she was the suspect in the fire and assault.

The woman was taken to the county jail and treated for superficial burns to the backs of her legs. She was booked into the jail on charges of first-degree assault, first-degree arson, first- and second-degree criminal mischief and unlawful use of a weapon.

“It is believed that drugs are a factor in this incident,” Russell said.