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Two times in as many days, 50-year-old Dorian Cannon was shipped by Clackamas County sheriff’s deputies to a hospital for psychiatric treatment.
Twice, he was arrested again within hours.
The first time, Cannon walked out of a local hospital and was arrested for obstructing traffic at a Happy Valley intersection. The second time, he was sent to the Unity Center for Behavioral Health in Portland and was arrested the next day for allegedly stabbing another man to death on an Old Town street corner Sept. 30.
Cannon’s was one of four homicide cases that weekend—a spike in violence that Portland police described as a “tragic coincidence,” but which further investigation by WW has shown are symptoms of civic systems gone awry.
Last week, WW reported that the alleged perpetrator of another Old Town stabbing, Kalil Ford, 20, had been released from jail the day before after police failed to recover video evidence that would have helped prosecutors justify holding him behind bars.
Now, WW has examined the criminal and medical histories of a second alleged perpetrator, Cannon, to understand how the systems that were supposed to treat him and protect the community from the violent symptoms of his disease failed to do either.
“He dropped right through a hundred outstretched hands,” says Jason Renaud of the Mental Health Association of Portland. Renaud points to the state’s shortage of “step down” housing, which can help hospitalized patients transition into the community.
A spokeswoman for Unity, Elizabeth Baker, declined to comment on Cannon’s stay at the clinic, citing state and federal laws. But Baker sent WW a lengthy statement on behalf of the clinic’s president, Melissa Eckstein, defending the Legacy Health-owned institution, noting that it cares for more than 1,000 patients each month, most of them homeless, and has experienced a “consistent increase in numbers” in recent years.
“We will continue to advocate for the resources and support we know are greatly needed,” the statement concludes.
A review of Cannon’s criminal history shows Unity was just the last of many safety nets he fell through.
Cannon’s criminal history goes back decades. His first conviction came when he was 19, according to court documents. The first record of him WW could find in Oregon dates back to 2004, when he was cited for theft and dodging TriMet fares.
At some point, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. He recently told a county employee he had been homeless for 25 years and cycled in and out of Oregon State Hospital, the state’s locked psychiatric ward, five times.
Defendants too mentally ill to “aid and assist” in their own defense are sent to the state hospital to be treated and, in theory at least, recover their sanity.
Over the following two decades, Cannon was charged with 10 felonies. And Cannon’s illness—and his crimes—became more acute.
2015: Police arrested Cannon at gunpoint after he boarded a bus downtown and threatened to slit the bus driver’s throat after he refused to refund 35 cents Cannon had paid.
2019: Another TriMet bus driver denied him a refund. This time, Cannon called him the N-word and kicked open the bus door, breaking the glass. He was convicted of criminal mischief and a bias crime. He was put on probation.
2020: Cannon was again convicted for addressing a bus driver with the same slur while hanging on to the front windshield and brandishing a knife. This time, he was sentenced to 16 months in prison, minus credit for time served.
TriMet banned him from the public transit system for a year, beginning in March 2021.
August 2021: Cannon was caught stealing a boat from Riverplace Marina—and hiring someone to pilot it to the ocean. He didn’t make it far. The owner called police after finding Cannon joyriding the boat’s jet ski in the Willamette River. Cannon told police he “came to the boat to party.”
November 2021: Cannon was hauled to jail when he failed to show up for court, and was later hospitalized.
June 2022: He made a deal with prosecutors: His 30-month sentence was reduced to one year and one day—most of which he had already served. “I’m glad to be here, honestly,” he told the judge, and promised to get a job to pay the $1,400 in restitution he owed the boat owner.
Sept. 9: Cannon finished serving his prison time and was put on 24 months’ supervised probation to ensure he continued taking his medication. But he wasn’t released. Nor was he transferred to a treatment facility.
Instead, he was back in jail. There was a warrant out for his arrest on a previous harassment charge in Clackamas County.
But the county sheriff quickly determined that Cannon needed treatment.
Sept. 27: A Clackamas County sheriff’s deputy found Cannon in the middle of the street near a pediatric dental clinic in Happy Valley. How he got there remains a mystery.
Jail administrators were holding Cannon until a bed opened up at Unity, according to a clerk who answered the phone at the jail. Instead, an ambulance took him to a local hospital, which he apparently walked away from hours later.
Chris Owens, a Clackamas County prosecutor, said he was told that was a mistake.
A spokesman for the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office offered an explanation that only raises more questions about the county’s handling of Cannon’s case: “Once a patient is in the custody of [American Medical Response], their policies and procedures for transporting patients determine which facility they transport to,” Deputy John Wildhaber wrote.
Regardless, Cannon was brought back to county jail and successfully transported to Unity the next morning.
Sept. 28: Cannon was transported to Multnomah County’s parole and probation office for an interview. There, officials tried unsuccessfully to find him housing. None of the facilities would take Cannon due to his extensive criminal history, says county spokeswoman Jessica Morkert-Shibley.
The county is short “longer-term, transitional beds,” Morkert-Shibley adds. “Demand outweighs supply.” Instead, Cannon was sent to a shelter and told to report to his probation officer the next day.
He didn’t. Instead, police arrested him outside the Union Gospel Mission on West Burnside Street in Old Town. Witnesses said Cannon had stabbed Anthony Hartley, 40, in the neck. “I had to do it for my humanity,” Cannon allegedly told the arresting officer.