Nosler Machinist Claims Self Defense in Bend, OR: Trayvon, Rittenhouse replay?

 

Ian Cranston and his fiancee Allie Butler

Ian Cranston is a 27 year old machinist employed at the world famous Nosler bullet making company in Bend, Oregon.

On September 19, Ian Cranston was with his fiancee, Allie Butler. He shot and killed 22-year-old Barry Washington outside a bar in Bend, Oregon.

Washington had been acting erratically earlier that night. Washington had propositioned Cranston's fiancee, inside the bar.

After a second proposition had been rejected, outside the bar, Washington attacked Cranston. Cranston displayed his firearm to deter further attack. Then Washington attacked Cranston's friend and started to come at Cranston again. Cranston fired one shot. Washington went down.  Cranston immediately attempted to apply first aid, but the shot proved fatal. There is said to be video evidence from multiple angles. From ktvz.com:

In a statement to media, Sali added: "On behalf of Mr. Cranston, and particularly in light of the false and inflammatory public statements made previously by the District Attorney’s office, we are immensely grateful that the events of that evening were comprehensively and accurately captured on video by multiple cameras. For our part, we will continue to make our case in court, where it belongs, and based on the evidence, as it should be."

Cranston's lawyer gave a summation of the events shown in the video, which has not been released to the public.  From ktvz.com:

Shortly after midnight, Sali said, “Washington suddenly and without any provocation attacked Cranston … with two powerful, closed-fist blows to the head,” causing a head injury. The lawyer said “Washington raised his arm and made a series of threatening gestures toward him,” by which time Cranston – who had a concealed handgun license – was holding his gun, and displayed it to Washington to “deter … the assault.”

But the threats continued, he claimed, and Washington “lunged towards (Cranston’s friend) and punched him in the face.”

“Then, Washington turned at and squared toward Cranston, who was standing only a few feet away, with his handgun still drawn and visible,” the motion states. “It was at this point that Cranston finally fired a single shot at Washington. The round struck Washington in his midsection, stopping the assault.”

“Once it became clear that the threat had ended, Cranston immediately moved to Washington and began rendering aid and calling for help,” Sali stated.

Cranston was arrested for manslaughter by the Bend police. It appears this occurred before the video evidence was analyzed. From a media release by the District Attorney, John Hummel: 

Barry Washington was shot and killed on a downtown Bend street by Ian Cranston,in the early morning hours of September 19, 2021. Bend Police officers quickly responded and arrested Mr. Cranston for the crime of Manslaughter in the Second Degree. Shortly after his arrest, Mr. Cranston paid the bail amount previously established by the Deschutes County Circuit Court for people charged with the crime of Manslaughter in the Second Degree and he was released from jail on the condition that he appear in court on October 5, 2021 at 9:00a.m.

To this correspondent's knowledge, no security video has been made public. The security video has only been available to the prosecutor and the defense. 

The video of the incident initially made available to the public was from the cell phone of Cranston's fiancee. 

A far left activist group, the Central Oregon Peacekeepers, stormed the office of the Central Oregon Daily News and demanded the video be removed from public access.  From linkedin.com:

 The cell phone video taken by Mr. Cranston's fiancee was first aired by Central Oregon Daily News. In short order the Central Oregon Peacekeepers stormed their offices in protest, an action requiring the Bend Police Department to respond. Then, during the Cranston arraignment, the same group led by Mr. Luke Richter, then targeted a CODN film crew covering the arraignment and aggressively, both physically and verbally, attacked them.

Far left activists successfully pressured Central Oregon News into taking down the phone video of the incident. They applied further pressure on the Central Oregon News crew which appeared at the Courthouse. From centraloregondaily.com:

Outside the Deschutes County Courthouse Friday, as Ian Cranston was arraigned on murder and manslaughter charges for the shooting death of Barry Washington Jr., a crowd of roughly 125 people gathered.

It was peaceful, with cheering when the judge announced that Cranston would continue to be held without bail.

But chaos erupted when Luke Richter, a leader with the local group the Central Oregon Peacekeepers, singled out a Central Oregon Daily News crew.

The far left activist group claimed the incident was one of racism, and that Washington was murdered simply because he complemented Cranston's fiancee. They did not mention the attack on Cranston and his friend, or that Washington had a blood alcohol level of .195.

In a comment section of an editorial considering possible conflicts between DA Hummel and Police Chief Kranz, Hummel is characterized as having " ridiculously far left wing views". From bendbullitin.com: 

NotaRobot Aug 8, 2021 8:20am

As a long-time Bend resident and tax payer, I support Chief Krantz and his policing decisions. Mr Hummel should keep his ridiculously far left wing views in check and represent the people of Bend that want the law, order, respect, cleanliness, and sense of community that is Bend. If Mr Hummel wants to destroy communities by undermining police and letting criminals ignore police direction and watch the city go to ruin, he should move to portland which is our liberal icon of how poorly that model works

District Attorney Hummel took the side of the far left. He framed the incident as one of racism where a white man killed a black man for complementing his fiancee.  He openly takes the side of the far left activists in this youtube video. Here is a partial transcript:

To the hundreds of people who have been advocating on behalf of Barry; Thank you, keep it up. Our Community needs you. Know this, justice will be done in this case."

District Attorney Hummel links the case to historical attacks on black men although there has not been any evidence shown of racial animus in this case. From bendsource.com:

“Our country has a disgraceful history of denigrating, prosecuting and lynching Black men for talking to white women. Over the last week, literally hundreds of people called and emailed me to remind me of this history. I responded to every one of you,” he said. “Racism didn't only happen back then. And down there. It happens right here. And right now.” 

District Attorney Hummel did not find evidence of racism to charge Ian Cranston with a hate crime. He encouraged the activist group to continue scouring social media to find something he could use to prosecute a hate crime. From bendsource.com:

The grand jury did not charge Cranston with a hate crime, but Hummel said there’s an ongoing investigation of Cranston’s motives. He said the public has been helpful collecting evidence, particularly the activist group Central Oregon Peacekeepers, and asked anyone with relevant information to send it to his office or Bend PD.

The District attorney was able to convince a grand jury to find reason to charge Ian with murder after considerable pressure from the leftist activist group. From lawandcrime:

Hummel’s announcement of the murder charge was met by cheers and applause after community activists and local officials previously complained that Cranston, who is white, was getting off easy for the alleged murder of Washington, a 22-year-old Black man. Cranston had initially been charged with manslaughter and was released after posting $10,000 bond.

There are claims of racism in this case on facebook . It appears there isn't any evidence to support those claims. Even DA Hummel admits there is no evidence of racial animus: From the Daily Mail:

He said: 'If we obtain sufficient evidence to prove that this shooting was at least partially motivated by race, we will go back to that grand jury and ask them to add the charge."

Opinion: 

This case seems to be following the Trayvon Martin media model. A young black man unprovokedly attacks a white man, who is armed and defends himself. 

He is charged. Then leftist activists claim racism, without any evidence.  The leftist activists make up claims, which are repeated in the media. A left-wing activist DA then overcharges, to placate the leftist activists, who pressure the media into removing evidence from public scrutiny.  

For example, activists claimed the "N" word was used. No mention of any N word usage was presented by the District Attorney. If there had been N word usage in the video, the DA would have pounced on it. 

The DA pushes hard for no bail, in spite of the clear self defense claims, video evidence, long term ties to the community, and no criminal record on the part of Ian Cranston. 

Just because a person is unarmed doesn't mean they are not deadly threats.  Hundreds of people are killed with "personal weapons" (hands, feet, fists, etc.) every year. 

As in the Kyle Rittenhouse case, the attacker, Washington, appears to have ignored the fact that Cranston was armed. 

A major difference in this case is the large amount of video evidence is not available to the public. The job of the jury becomes more important, as the public has been making decisions on little evidence. 

In the Rittenhouse case, there was an enormous amount of video evidence available to the public. In the Cranston case, the Left is doing all it can to make sure the public does not see any video evidence. They are doing all they can to convict Cranston in the media.

People who are inebriated often make bad decisions. Making repeated unwanted advances to a man's fiancee, in front of him, then unprovokedly attacking him, is a recipe for bad consequences. 

This correspondent has not seen the video.

District Attorney Hummel has decided not to run for re-election after the end of his term in 2022.

©2021 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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