ANDY NGO REPORTS: Portland rock-throwing vandal who allegedly took a hostage is identified as leftist protester

A 32-year-old Portland man was arrested on Monday after allegedly using a rock to smash up a downtown business and then later taking a hostage. 

Portland Police say that David Read Haywood Everding fled the scene of the vandalism attack before being found later in the day in another part of downtown. He ran into an office building near Southwest 5th Avenue and Southwest Oak Street where he took a hostage, police say.  

“Once inside, the suspect took hold of a security guard and used the guard as a shield to avoid being arrested,” police said in a statement. The hostage was eventually released unharmed before Everding was arrested.

Everding was charged with felony second-degree kidnapping, felony coercion, felony first-degree criminal mischief, resisting arrest, harassment and escape. On April 4, the day after the incident, the resisting arrest charge was dropped by district attorney Mike Schmidt’s office.

Hostage-taking suspect David Everding

Everding is a University of Oregon alumnus and leftist protester who was at the June 2018 occupation of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office by far-left extremists and Antifa. The 38-day siege forced federal employees to evacuate as both Mayor Ted Wheeler and the Portland Police denied the office’s pleas for law enforcement assistance.

Hostage-taking suspect David Everding was at the 2018 'Occupy ICE' siege in Portland by far-left extremists

“It's goin' down every night in PDX until they free these kids. #OccupyICE,” he wrote in an Instagram post. On the first day of the occupation, extremists barricaded the exits and sent guards to patrol the doors, trapping workers inside.

Everding’s social media posts also show him posing with progressive former Oregon governor Kate Brown and far-left ex-Portland city councilwoman Jo Ann Hardesty. In November, Hardesty was voted out of office.

Hardesty infamously defended the deadly 2020 BLM-Antifa riots in Portland, and blamed the violence and arson attacks on white supremacists and the Portland Police, respectively. She later walked back her arson accusations against police after being asked for evidence of the felony conspiracy.

Former governor Brown spread the baseless claim that “secret police” had been “abducting” peaceful protesters during the riots. The city of Portland and the state of Oregon refused to cooperate with federal law enforcement as thousands of rioters tried to burn down the Mark O. Hatfield US federal courthouse in July 2020.

Violent suspect David Everding poses with then-Oregon governor Kate Brown and then-Portland far-left city council member Jo Ann Hardesty

Everding’s last listed employment on his LinkedIn profile says he is a business systems analyst for Nike, but this could not be confirmed as up-to-date. (Nike was reached for comment.)

In the last few years, Everding has been arrested multiple times on suspicion of various violent crimes in Portland. In September 2019, he was charged with fourth-degree assault, resisting arrest and interfering with an officer. He was convicted on the last charge and had the other two charges dismissed.

In March 2020, he was charged with second-degree criminal trespass but the case was dropped. And just weeks before Monday’s hostage incident, Everding was charged with felony first-degree criminal mischief and fourth-degree assault in a case that remains open. 

Everding has not entered any pleas yet and remains in custody the day following the incident. He has a court-appointed defense attorney and the court was presented with a report arguing for Everding’s release from jail.