A man who shot two employees working as property managers at the Cascadian Terrace Apartments in Portland during an eviction last December has been sentenced to 13 and a half years in prison, according to reports.
Reynaldo Diaz Cabrera who pleaded no contest in April to two counts of attempted murder was formally sentenced in May.
The two managers for Guardian Real Estate Services, working at Portland’s Cascadian Terrace Apartments developed by Community Development Partners, were shot and wounded by Cabrera during an eviction.
Doris Bray, 64, and Bill Maddrell, 45, were shot after Cabrera walked into the apartment management office and shot them. Police later said Cabrera told them he fired the gun shots because he was mad about being evicted from his apartment.
Property managers just doing their jobs
During the sentencing, Bray’s daughter, Roxanne Wilson, told the court it had taken more three months to take Cabrera to court to get the eviction due to a list of items he had been cited for.
“She was doing her job and doing it well,” Wilson told the court according to Oregonlive.com. “Residents felt unsafe because of him, and my mom was doing everything she legally could.”
Wilson said her mother was traumatized and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, according to Oregonlive.com.
What property managers can do to protect themselves
Community Development Partners, the company that developed the apartment complex and hired Guardian to manage it, offered some thoughts earlier this year in a report on what could be learned from the shooting to help other property managers possibly avoid such issues in the future.
Part of the advice to help property managers is a suggestion that It might be wise to talk with the police if there is a concern of a threat. The police can escort the manager to the occupant’s unit to help ensure the manager’s safety. If the tenant fails to vacate upon eviction, management can take advantage of a police lock-out.
The police can escort the person off the property, and set a time for the person to come back and pick up their belongings when management can arrange for more security to be present. These resources should be used carefully, however, as they can inflame a situation, according to the report.
Read more here on ways property managers can protect themselves from violent tenants.
Photo credit dzyx via instockphoto.com
