An alleged member of the Crips street gang faces a first-degree manslaughter charge in the death of 19-year-old Rylee Hatlen during an Old Town shoot-out, court records say.
Sid Willis Jr. was aiming at rival gang members when his bullet strayed and struck Hatlen as she sat in a car parked in the surface lot bordering Northwest Broadway and Couch Street about 2 a.m. Aug. 13, 2023.
Willis was arrested last month and remains in Inverness Jail with no bail set, records say.
Surveillance footage shows the 45-year-old arriving at the parking lot in a gold GMC Yukon and talking with fellow gang members before one of them, Matthew Cage, purposely strode across the lot and challenged an unidentified group of rivals, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Cage, 34, suddenly pressed his pistol to another man’s head and pulled the trigger — but the gun misfired, sparking a frenzied crossfire, the affidavit says.
Willis’ shot one of his associates in the leg and Hatlen in the face, prosecutors wrote.
It’s unclear if anyone else was injured. Gresham police arrested Cage in early September. He was charged with first-degree attempted murder and also remains in custody.
Hatlen was a 2021 graduate from Rosemary Anderson High School, a small alternative high school previously profiled by The Oregonian/OregonLive after five other students died in shootings between summer 2020 and January 2022.
Willis has been a felon banned from possessing a gun since 1997 and has spent several major stints in prison, primarily for gun or cocaine convictions. Willis’ attorney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
—Zane Sparling covers breaking news and courts for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach him at 503-319-7083, [email protected] or @pdxzane.
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