A dispute over peacock harassment led to a shooting in Portland, Oregon (KGW/YouTube).
The incident began with a threat following an altercation over the harassment of peacocks in a Portland neighborhood known for its vibrant bird population.
It ended with a shooting, and now a man is headed to prison.
On Thursday, a judge handed down a 90-month sentence—equivalent to seven-and-a-half years—to 25-year-old Dylan Levi Rhoads after he admitted guilt to attempted second-degree murder related to the shooting that took place on September 29, 2023.
According to the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office in a press release, the victim was about to leave his family to head to work when he noticed two men, with Rhoads among them, antagonizing peacocks across the road. When he intervened, they became menacing and made threats such as “bock, bock, bock you next” and “We can bang right now.”
A plethora of peacocks are known to roam the southeast Portland neighborhood, spreading their feathers in driveways and even relaxing atop cars. They’ve been doing so for years.
“Neighborhood lore is some years ago someone had some peacocks, said they kept hassling him, he said ‘fine’ and let them all loose,” a neighbor told NBC affiliate KGW amid the squawking peafowls. “No one actually takes care of them, we all sort of look after them a bit.”
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
That’s apparently what happened on the day in question. After the confrontation, the victim went back into his home and waited for the men to drive away. Once they did so, he hopped into his car and started driving. But it turned out the men had not left the area and were waiting for him in their car at a nearby intersection, prosecutors said.
Rhoads fired five shots from the driver’s seat, hitting the victim’s car several times. Bullets grazed the victim, but he was not seriously injured thanks in part to a special, heavy-duty driver’s seat, which stopped one of the shots, per prosecutors.
More from Law&Crime: ‘Like a bunch of pack animals’: Teens claim they beat man ‘senseless’ because he was ‘bothering an autistic friend’ of theirs, police say
Cops used Ring camera footage to identify the suspect’s vehicle, which they found a couple of days after the shooting.
In addition to attempted murder, the defendant also pleaded guilty to unlawful use of a firearm and resolved eight different cases against him, prosecutors said.
“This defendant had a clear pattern of escalating, dangerous, criminal behavior. And yet he was repeatedly released after being arrested for his earlier crimes,” said Deputy District Attorney Eric Palmer, who prosecuted the case. “I believe the system failed here — failed both the victims and the defendant.”
