There's been three stabbings this year in downtown, and overall assaults downtown have climbed nearly 86% in past five years

The sidewalks have been cleared of tables and chairs outside of the downtown Starbucks on Willamette Street and Broadway this week, after the brutal and seemingly random attack that occurred last weekend at the busy corner across from Kesey Square.

Gabriel Pemble, 40, of Eugene, is now facing an attempted murder charge, as well as first-degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon. The victim, a Eugene man in his 70s, is still recovering from the July 6 attack, which occurred just after 7 a.m. With injuries initially thought to be life-threatening, the man's condition is good, a hospital spokesperson said Thursday.

Pemble was inside Starbucks having a cup of coffee before he went outside and allegedly stabbed the victim seated at an outside table with what witnesses described as a footlong knife. The two men did not know each other. Two bystanders intervened and held Pemble until Eugene police arrived. One of those men, who described himself as homeless, had to go to the hospital after his hand was broken in the tussle.

Incidents of assaults in downtown Eugene increased nearly 86% from 2014 to 2018 — from 125 incidents in 2014 to 232 last year, according to Eugene police crime statistics, released annually over the last five years. That increase, along with the most recent violence happening at a popular and active intersection, calls into question for many area residents how safe they feel about coming to downtown Eugene.

"I think (the stabbing) was tragic," said Thomas Pettus-Czar, owner of the nearby Barn Light Cafe and Bar. "And I think it illustrates these unending issues that we're facing downtown. It's almost exclusively surrounding issues of substance abuse and mental illness that we clearly don't have the resources to deal with.

"Almost on a daily basis, there's some evidence of violence or aggression or a feeling of being unsafe and it's not just downtown, it's all over our community."

The Starbucks stabbing was one of three stabbings that occurred downtown this year. Overall, according to Eugene police call logs, there have been 11 stabbings in the city of Eugene this year that generated a criminal case. The majority — five — occurred in west Eugene, with one in south Eugene and two in the Whiteaker neighborhood, according to call logs.

"Overall, I think downtown is safe," Eugene Mayor Lucy Vinis said Friday. "I spend my working days downtown and make a point of eating at downtown restaurants and attending downtown gatherings and cultural events in the evenings and weekends. But for any of us, and particularly for downtown businesses, any incident that feels or is threatening quickly changes our perceptions of safety."

Eugene police statistics categorize assaults to include aggravated assault, attempted murder, simple assault, intimidation, stalking, restraining order violation and reckless endangering.

From 2014 to 2015, the first year the crime stats were released, there was a 28% increase in assaults downtown. The numbers have continued to increase by 13% each year from 2015 to 2018.

Overall crime, including crimes on people, property and society, in downtown from 2017 to 2018 increased by 11.5%.

On Thursday afternoon, dozens of people were downtown, visiting from other cities or on a lunch break, grabbing a bite from a food cart in Kesey Square.

Olivia Downing, a transgender woman who has been living off and on in Eugene for the past 20 years, was offering Tarot card readings near the square. She said that she's had to defend herself physically and in other ways many times.

"Before I started transitioning, it was not that safe," Downing said about being downtown. "Now, it is absolutely insane. It's not safe for a cisgender people, but for transpeople and especially transwomen, the majority of the violence I've received physically, verbally, and in any other way, has come from homeless males specifically.

"So for cisgender people, this is not that safe, but it's not like it's L.A. or anything like that. It's Eugene unsafe."

Katie Cruger, who works at the Barn Light, said she's noticed the steady increase in crime in Eugene during her past seven years of working downtown.

"There's theft and assaults, that kind of stuff. Yelling, screaming," she said. "We do stay open until 2 a.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so yeah, we definitely have to deal with kicking people out, riffraff, that kind of stuff. I think (the homeless) have concentrated a lot more downtown and it's hard, because they don't have anywhere else to go. So sidewalks, alley ways, things like that turn into living spaces. So we have to deal with that.

"At the end of the day, we're still a business. And as much as we want to be sympathetic to that situation, we still have to operate and make customers feel comfortable, sanitary. That's the biggest thing. Garbage, and urine, and other things. ... It's gotten a lot worse. I'm not sure why, the reason."

Vinis said the city has made significant changes in the past month to help the downtown core be and feel safe, including extending authority over median strips to property owners to create safer streets and sidewalks, as well as instituting 24/7 monitored bathrooms.

"We've improved the lighting and signage for the parking garages and we've invested in increased funding for community safety to improve our response both to criminal and nuisance crimes," Vinis said. "The city also invests in positive, fun activities and cultural life downtown in order to encourage behavior that we want — and it works."

Recent news of the downtown Starbucks location closing is not believed to be related to the violent attack. But Eugene resident Dave Fenner, who addressed the Eugene City Council in a letter to the editor this week about downtown safety, linked the two.

"Starbucks is closing its location on Broadway and Willamette streets downtown — because downtown is not safe," Fenner wrote. "Behind that notion, however, is the real reason Starbucks is closing. City 'leaders' have promoted an anything-goes, drug-addled, travelers-welcome, we’re-so-progressive invitation to every moocher in the country who wants to avoid life’s responsibilities. Let city taxpayers in Eugene enable them. Come one, come all! We will wring our hands worrying about how to provide you with food, housing, drugs, etc."

Starbucks employees declined to comment Thursday on the stabbing or whether the victim or suspect were regulars at the downtown coffee shop. Pemble was, however, a regular at nearby Barn Light up until March when the staff had to ban him from returning after he caused a scene and yelled at employees.

"He used to come in here. He's been 86ed from our establishment," Cruger said. "When we had kicked him out, he kind of had a fit. All the way up until then, for several months, he would come in here and have a cup of coffee and be fine. He would try to come in here a couple of times after that, and we just told him, 'You can't be in here,' and he seemed very agitated, but for the most part he would just leave without any incident."

Sitting with a friend at Eugene Teahouse on Thursday, a woman named Willow was unaware that a stabbing had occurred just next door at Starbucks.

"I have felt unsafe in the downtown area, but times of day like this I don't really feel like it's an issue," Willow said. "I feel like it's gotten better than it was but there's still a sense of unsafety, like before they kind of regulated the street kids that were here with their dogs. Because that was actually most of my sense of unsafety, it had to do with the dogs. Because I've almost been attacked by a couple of dogs down here.

"Certain times of the night, there's also a lot of drinking here that happens and I feel like it can become kind of predatory in the area. But I've been here for 10 years, and I've definitely seen it get better. But it's not the best that I think it can be."

But Barn Light owner Pettus-Czar disagreed.

"I don't think downtown is safe. I do think it's getting worse," Pettus-Czar said. "And I don't point to the unhoused as the problem. I point to the community as the problem for not coming up with solutions to help people with issues like substance abuse and mental illness who find themselves unhoused. That's the issue."

Follow Chelsea Deffenbacher on Twitter @ChelseaDeffenB. Email chelsea.deffenbacher@registerguard.com.