Portland residents Steven Dinh and Bret Christopherson were walking back from a 7-Eleven on Saturday when they parted to allow another pedestrian headed their way to walk past. The two suddenly turned when they heard someone running toward them from behind.

"By the time I looked over my shoulder,'' Christopherson recalled, "I got a face full of fist.''

Christopherson, 23, crumpled to the ground in the 7300 block of North Denver Avenue in the Arbor Lodge neighborhood. The stranger then punched Dinh in the cheek and he fell into a nearby driveway.

"We weren't even making eye contact with him at all and suddenly he just punched us," Dinh said. "I just didn't expect that to happen out of nowhere.''

It wasn't the only random attack that day by a stranger who cold-cocked men minding their own business, police say. A 22-year-old man now stands accused of assaulting Dinh and Christopherson, and breaking the jaw of a third man a short time later about a mile away.

Brandon Deuntrell Frison

Christian Moore, 20, had left his grandfather's upholstery shop in the 2700 block of North Lombard Street in the Kenton neighborhood to walk his dog. On his way back, he saw a man run from across the street. The man then ran up to Moore from behind, he told police.

"One hit brought him down to his knees,'' said Moore's grandfather, who rushed Moore to the hospital after he stumbled back to the store bleeding. "What's so shocking is it happened around 4 or 5 o'clock in the daytime right outside all these shops. This guy clearly wasn't even worried about getting caught.''

The single punch broke Moore's jaw. He required surgery, was hospitalized for two nights and now must drink from a straw for the next six weeks as six rubber bands help keep his jaw in place.

"When you're 20, you think you're invincible,'' said Lannie Kiehn, Moore's grandfather. "It's crazy. You'd never expect that someone could just run up behind you and knock you out.''

With the help of a witness who ran after the suspect, Portland police soon arrested Brandon Deuntrell Frison, 22, at North Lombard Street and Peninsular Avenue.

He told police that the men he attacked were looking at him as if he were an attractive female, Multnomah County deputy district attorney Todd Jackson wrote in a probable cause affidavit.

He struck them with his left fist, acknowledging to police that none of the men did anything to him other than look at him, the affidavit said. Police said they don't suspect Frison was under the influence of any drugs or alcohol at the time of the attacks.

Dinh and Christopherson dismissed Frison's account, saying they barely got a look at their assailant.

Frison is being held on allegations of two counts of second-degree assault and one count of fourth-degree assault. He provided officers with a North Portland mailing address. Frison's only other court contact in Oregon was a TriMet fare violation in 2017, when he gave a Nevada address.

He's being held at the Multnomah County Detention Center on $502,000 bail, and is set to return to court Tuesday to face an expected indictment.

Christopherson said he may need surgery for three fractures to his left cheekbone.

"I was attacked out of the blue. It's nuts,'' he said. "This day and age, people are getting crazy.

"You never expect these things. You never think this will be you.''

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian