NEWBERG, Ore. — Newberg-Dundee police arrested a man on suspicion of assaulting a 69-year-old man on a trail at Ewing Young Park on July 8, and a department captain says the park remains safe despite the incident.
Officers were dispatched to the park, at 1201 Blaine St., at about 9:50 a.m. that Wednesday after a report of an assault, according to a statement posted July 10 by the Newberg-Dundee Police Department on Facebook. Officers found a 69-year-old man with facial injuries who reported being shoved down an embankment at the south end of the park. He was taken to a hospital and has since been released, according to the report.
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An NDPD drone team and a Yamhill County Sheriff’s Office K-9 team helped locate the suspect, described at the time as a Hispanic man wearing a light-colored shirt and dark pants, police said. Investigators developed probable cause to arrest 37-year-old Gustavo Leon on suspicion of fourth-degree assault, harassment and criminal trespass. He was booked into the Yamhill County Jail.
Police said they have reason to believe additional incidents involving the suspect may have occurred in or near the park and are asking anyone with information to contact NDPD at 503-538-8321 or police@newbergoregon.gov, referencing case number 26-1014.
NDPD Capt. Ryan Simmons, in an interview with Newsberg, said the case does not reflect a broader safety problem at the park.
“This is isolated because it involved one individual,” Simmons said. “It’s not that there’s a high population of folks that aren’t housed living down here, and you just don’t know if they’re going to assault you today. That’s not true. The park isn’t known for that.”
Simmons said the most frequent calls his department receives from the park involve disputes at the skate park or unauthorized campfires, often from people experiencing homelessness seeking warmth during winter months.
“Rarely is it anything in the park beyond that,” Simmons said.
Simmons pointed to Newberg’s ranking as the fifth-safest city in Oregon, according to a Safewise ranking published in March. He said the rankings are based on violent and property crime rates per 1,000 residents reported through FBI data, and said most crime in the city involves people who know each other rather than random acts of violence.
“Even the homicides we’ve had over the years, [the suspects] were known to each other,” Simmons said.
Trail Safety Tips
Simmons, who said he walks daily near his home, offered advice for people using trails throughout Newberg and Dundee.
He said walkers should avoid noise-canceling headphones or earbuds that block out surrounding sound, opting instead for bone-conduction headphones that leave the ears open. He also recommended staying visually aware of surroundings rather than looking down at the trail, and periodically checking behind for approaching people.
“Trust your gut,” Simmons said. “There’s a lot of research that the gut’s tied to the brain, and I can tell you in my career, there’s been times where I’m like, I don’t know what this is, but this isn’t right.”
Simmons said walkers who feel uneasy about a person or group ahead on a trail should turn back rather than continue past them, even if it means a longer route home.
Simmons encouraged walkers and hikers to understand their legal rights around self-defense, saying tools such as pepper spray can help someone get away safely from an attacker. Oregon law generally allows a person to use physical force against another when they reasonably believe it’s necessary to stop an imminent unlawful attack, under Oregon Revised Statute 161.209, though that justification can be lost if the person provoked the confrontation.
Deadly force is authorized only in narrower circumstances involving a threat of death, serious injury or certain violent felonies, under ORS 161.219. Readers can review the statutes directly at the Oregon public law website.
In a worst-case scenario involving physical contact, Simmons said the priority should be escaping the situation and calling 911 rather than engaging.
“Your priority is getting away from that person,” Simmons said, adding that fumbling with a phone while not paying attention to an attacker makes for an easier target.
Despite the recent incident, Simmons said he wants residents to feel confident using Ewing Young Park and Newberg’s other trails. On any given day, people walk, run, play, skate and ride in Newberg’s parks safely and without conflict, he said, and an isolated incident shouldn’t stop people from enjoying their community’s parks.
“I don’t want to beat it into the ground, but I want people to know it’s very safe to walk the parks,” Simmons said.
