Portland police have taken a Southeast Portland man into custody under a city ordinance prohibiting adults from leaving unsecured firearms where minors can get them.

The arrest of Joseph Daniel Charlton, 34, stemmed from

that police say was committed by two boys age 11 and 7.

The gun was a .22-caliber derringer pistol, said Sgt. Pete Simpson, spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau.

"We're trying to figure out who had possession of the derringer and how it got in the hands of an 11 year-old boy," Simpson said.

About 10 a.m., the Police Bureau's Gun Task Force served a search warrant in the 16100 block of Southeast Alder Street in connection with the case. The state Department of Human Services took a 4-year-old girl, the 11-year-old accused in the gun case and a 9-year-old into protective custody.

"The overall conditions in home, circumstances, are not healthy for kids," Simpson said of the decision to take the children into protective custody.

Police also obtained search warrants for two Dodge trucks belonging to the family. Multnomah County animal control officers removed two animals, a cat and a dog, from the property, police said.

The home searched sits next door to the Freedom Foursquare Church, where 22-year-old Amy Garrett said she was accosted Saturday by an 11-year-old with with a gun and a 7-year-old toting bullets in a backpack.

"We have probable cause to arrest the dad for at least leaving the gun unsecured," Simpson said.

Police also charged Charlton, a convicted felon, with felon in possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of a firearm, endangering the welfare of a minor and endangering a child by allowing access to a firearm under the city's two-year-old ordinance. No other guns were found inside the home during the search, police said.

Charlton is the first person in Portland to be prosecuted under the city ordinance.

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Portland police said the 11-year-old was armed with a loaded .22-caliber handgun and threatened

, 22, in her pickup truck while she was parked at Freedom Foursquare Church at Southeast Alder Street and 160th Avenue on Saturday. Garrett said the 11-year-old boy and a 7-year-old boy, who she said pulled a box of bullets from his backpack, demanded her pickup, then money and her phone.

She drove away safely.

Police returned the children to their parents on Saturday. Neighbors have said they've had

with the 11-year-old boy and have complained unsuccessfully to his father.

On Tuesday, Andrea Brush, on-site manager of the Alder Royal Apartments near Charlton's home, pumped her fist in air when she learned Joseph Charlton had been arrested.

"Parents need to be held liable," she said. "Those are minor children. The parents can't take care of them. Somebody's got to."

Kevin George, who provides security for Freedom Foursquare Church and lives across the street, expressed similar feelings.

"It's about time they did something," said George.

George said he has called police at least five times in the past 18 months regarding complaints of vandalism and trespass involving the 11-year-old boy who police say attempted a robbery with a gun Saturday.

"I think the arrest will show the city that the Portland police and the court system are doing their job," George said.

While police have talked to the 11-year-old boy's parents in the past about neighborhood complaints, "this should really open their eyes," George said, of the boy's parents.

Tom Cleary, a Multnomah County senior deputy district attorney, said authorities have not decided yet whether to pursue a delinquency action against the 11-year-old boy.

Charlton pleaded guilty in February 2003 to fourth-degree assault, a Class C felony, court records show.

Portland's City Council unanimously

on Dec. 1 2010, intending to hold adults responsible if their guns get into children's hands.

It was one of five city gun measures passed by the council in an effort to reduce gun violence in the city. In doing so, the council joined other major cities around the country, led by mayors who pressed to adopt gun control measures that their state lawmakers would or could not.

Text of the ordinance is in the body of this post below.

Mayor Sam Adams offered this written reaction to Tuesday's arrest: "Like most American cities, Portland is swamped with illegal guns like stolen guns. Illegal guns that kill and injure Portlanders. Adults keeping their weapons out of reach of children is not only basic common sense, in Portland it is the law."

The new ordinance approved two years ago created a new crime, endangering a child by allowing access to a firearm. It set a sliding scale of penalties involving jail time and a fine, dependent upon danger to community.

Under the ordinance, an adult would be guilty of the crime if he failed to prevent access to a firearm, whether loaded or unloaded, to a child without permission or the permission of a parent or guardian.

The penalty increases if the child carries the firearm off the gun owner's premises - as police said was done in Saturday's attempted carjacking and attempted robbery in the lot of the Freedom Foursquare Church.

An adult would face the most severe penalty if the child carried the firearm to a school or school-related event.



Penny Okamoto, executive director of Ceasefire Oregon, said she's been wondering when the city was going to enforce the two-year-old ordinance.

Okamoto said she's heard of other cases in the past and has questioned why the new city law wasn't used until now.

"I'm glad they're finally enforcing it," Okamoto said. "I'm just so grateful no one was injured in this case."

Okamoto said the circumstances also raise the question as to who sold the father, Joe Charlton, a convicted felon, the .22-caliber gun.

-- Tom Hallman Jr.

-- Maxine Bernstein

-- Stuart Tomlinson

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14A.60.050 Endangering A Child By Allowing Access To A Firearm.



(Added by Ordinance No. 184274, effective December 31, 2010.)

A. A person commits the offense of endangering a child if a person fails to prevent access to a firearm by a minor when the person knew or reasonably should have known that a minor could gain access to the firearm under the following circumstances:

1. A person possesses or controls an operable firearm, whether loaded or unloaded, within premises under the person’s custody or control and a minor gains access to the firearm without the permission of the person, a parent or guardian.

2. A person possesses or controls an operable firearm, whether loaded or unloaded, within premises under the person’s custody or control and a minor gains access to the firearm without the permission of the person, a parent or guardian and the minor carries the firearm off the premises.

B. Violation of Subsection A.1. is punishable by incarceration for not more than 10 days and a fine of not more than $500.

C. Violation of Subsection A.2. is punishable by incarceration for not more than 20 days and a fine of not more than $750.

D. Violation of Subsection A.2. is punishable by incarceration for not more than 30 days and a fine of not more than $2,500 when the firearm is carried by the child off premises to any school, school-sponsored or school-related event.

E. Defenses: This section shall not apply if any one of the following circumstances exists:

1. The minor obtains the firearm as a result of an illegal entry into any premises by any person.

2. The firearm is kept in a locked container or in a location that a reasonable person would believe to be secure from entry by the minor.

3. The firearm is locked with a device that has rendered the firearm inoperable and is designed to prevent minors and unauthorized users from firing the firearm. The device may be installed on the firearm, be incorporated into the design of the firearm, or prevent access to the firearm.