Some peacocks, apparently originally kept as pets, have been released by owners, and now roam freely around areas of Southeast Portland – and have for decades. This one, in Brentwood-Darlington, may have been one of the group that led a gun-wielding resident to wind up in prison in May. (Photo by David F. Ashton)

There are mixed feelings in the community about the bands of “urban” peacocks which roam freely through more than a dozen blocks of yards in the Brentwood-Darlington neighborhood, from Errol Heights Park north to S.E. Henderson Street.

Frequently, visitors, driving through the area on Flavel Drive, between 45th and 52nd Avenues, will abruptly stop in the middle of the street to snap cell phone photos of the colorful, squawking birds. Some of the residents love these released pet birds; others are disgusted by the early-morning screeching they make.

A person evidently in the second category, Dylan Levi Rhoads, a resident of S.E. Rex Street, displayed distain for the peacocks on September 29, 2023 – by taking actions that eventually led him to being jailed, two years later, on an attempted murder charge.

According to court documents, on that September morn, a neighbor stepped out of his house and noticed Rhoads and another person “harassing” peacocks across the street. The neighbor asked them to stop – to which they reportedly responded, “Bock, bock, bock, you next”, and “We can bang right now.”

After backing off, the neighbor started his trip to work – but was confronted at a nearby intersection by the suspects, now inside a vehicle. The peacock harasser shot at the victim from his driver’s seat. Responding police found five shell casings in the intersection, and multiple bullet strikes to the victim’s car.

Bullets grazed the victim, but fortunately he did not suffer serious injuries – in part because he had installed a special, heavy duty seat in his car, which stopped one of the bullets from hitting him.

Within days, Rhoads was arrested, arraigned, and a trial date was set. However, before his trial, Rhoads accepted a “plea deal”.

On May 8 of this year, Multnomah County Circuit Judge Christopher Marshall sentenced Rhoads to 90 months (seven and a half years) in prison for that September 29, 2023 incident – after he pled guilty to Attempted Murder in the Second Degree with a Firearm, and Unlawful Use of a Weapon with a Firearm – and also resolved eight other cases against himself.

Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney Eric Palmer commented, after sentencing, “This defendant had a clear pattern of escalating and dangerous criminal behavior. And yet he was repeatedly released after being arrested for his earlier crimes! I believe the system failed here.”

But maybe not this time.