A dispute over peacock harassment led to a shooting in Portland, Oregon (KGW/YouTube).
It started with a threat of “bock, bock, bock you next” after a confrontation about harassing a flock of peacocks in a Portland, Oregon, neighborhood known for the colorful birds.
It ended with a shooting, and now a man is headed to prison.
A judge on Thursday sentenced Dylan Levi Rhoads, 25, to 90 months — seven-and-a-half years — behind bars after he pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree murder on Thursday for the Sept. 29, 2023, shooting.
The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office said in a press release that the victim was leaving his wife and kids at home to head to work when he saw two men pestering peacocks across the street. He asked them to stop. The men, including Rhoads, responded in a threatening manner, saying “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.”
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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.
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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.”
