A Portland park kidnapping attempt that left a seven-year-old girl lifted off the ground by a naked man has resulted in five criminal charges after the suspect was overpowered by the child’s parents and members of the public. Daniel C. Vasey, of Oregon, appeared before Multnomah County Circuit Court on 13 July 2026 and entered a not-guilty plea, according to KATU News. He remains in custody without bail.
The incident took place on the evening of 11 July 2026 at Tom McCall Waterfront Park, near the Salmon Street Springs in the 1000 block of Southwest Naito Parkway, according to the Portland Police Bureau. Vasey is charged with one count each of first-degree attempted kidnapping, second-degree attempted kidnapping, first-degree custodial interference, third-degree assault, and harassment.
How the Portland Park Kidnapping Attempt Unfolded
The Bureau of Emergency Communication (BOEC) first received reports at around 6:51 p.m. of a naked man running through the area near Southwest Naito Parkway. Four minutes later, a second caller reported the man had attempted to punch someone in the head.
Officers from the Central Precinct were occupied with other calls at that point, including a disturbance involving a firearm. Dispatchers accordingly sent officers from the North Precinct when a third call came in at 7:03 p.m., reporting that a man had grabbed a young girl and was pulling her from her mother.
The Portland Police Bureau’s news release describes what followed: ‘Her mother grabbed her other arm and tried to prevent Vasey from taking the 7-year-old. The struggle over the girl was so significant that she was lifted off the ground.’ The child’s father, mother, and several bystanders then intervened, punching, slapping, and pulling on the suspect. One bystander deployed pepper spray. That intervention prompted Vasey to release the girl, the bureau confirmed.
A witness who called 911 later described what he saw to local CBS affiliate KOIN: ‘Naked guy had come up and grabbed the little girl, and I heard her screaming, and I saw the mom come up trying to push him off of her and hitting him a couple times. That must have been really scary for that little girl as well.’
Officers arriving at the scene found Vasey wading naked in the Willamette River and took him into custody there. Paramedics treated the girl at the scene for scratches; she did not require hospitalisation. The family had travelled to Portland from out of state.
Prior Disturbance and Court Proceedings
KATU News reported that Vasey had already been arrested earlier on the same Saturday after allegedly causing a disturbance in Gresham, before the waterfront park incident occurred. The Oregonian separately reported that a search of Oregon court records did not disclose any prior criminal convictions for Vasey.
At his appearance in Multnomah County Circuit Court on 13 July 2026, Vasey entered not-guilty pleas to all five counts. He remains held without bail, according to KATU’s reporting.
The response time drew scrutiny after it emerged that Central Precinct officers were already engaged with a gun-related call when the reports of a child being grabbed came in. The Bureau of Emergency Communication was identified in the Portland Police Bureau’s official release as the agency that handled the emergency calls and coordinated the officer deployment from the North Precinct.
Vasey’s case is now proceeding through the Multnomah County courts. Subject to any further developments, the not-guilty plea sets the matter on course for pre-trial hearings on the five charges, the most serious of which, first-degree attempted kidnapping, carries a substantial custodial term under Oregon law.
