SENTINEL NEWS SERVICE 
By Carolyn Neuhausen
It’s not every day that a civilian is honored for being a hero, but that’s just what happened the afternoon of Sept. 5 at North Precinct. Civilian Seth Russell and Officers Ryan Derry and Christina Hansen-Tuma of North Precinct were commended for their role in responding to a vehicle accident and fire.
At 12:35 a.m. on Aug. 30, Russell and his girlfriend, St. Johns resident Wendy Martin, were driving across the St. Johns Bridge and noticed that a car had crashed on the hillside just west of the bridge. While another civilian was attempting to pry open the passenger side door, Russell ran over and saw that a passenger was trapped in the vehicle, which was quickly filling with smoke.
“There was someone [another bystander] screaming, ‘They’re still in there!’ ” said Russell, a 45-year-old Windermere realtor.
St. Helens resident Larry Dankin, 42, was already on the scene when Russell arrived. Dankin, who served in the U.S. Navy in both Iraq wars, had approached the smoking vehicle.
“I had my hesitation that the car might explode,” said Dankin. “Then all of a sudden this guy in Bermuda shorts [Russell] came running past me and jumps up on top of the car and starts prying the door open.”
Dankin and Russell managed to get the door of the SUV open. The car was filled with smoke. As they tried to remove the front passenger, the seats of the vehicle caught fire.
“There was smoke pouring out of there,” said Russell. “We couldn’t see anything.”
When the officers reached the scene, Hansen-Tuma went to the driver’s side of the car and found that the back seat passenger had flown head-first through the windshield and died. The driver was crushed by the collapsed frame of the vehicle. Efforts shifted to extracting the front-seat passenger from
the car.
Officer Derry quickly cut the seat belt from the passenger. As the passenger was pulled from the car, the vehicle burst into flames.
Two men, Carlos Zuniga-Isais, 31, the driver, and Jorge Erazo-Banegas, 21, the rear passenger, died. The third man, Abilsai Morales-Roblero, 20, was listed in critical condition on Sept. 5 at Legacy Emanuel Hospital. At the time of this report he had been upgraded to serious condition.
Officers Hansen-Tuma and Derry and “Citizen Russell” were awarded a medal and a certificate from the Portland Police Bureau in front of North Precinct officers, their family members and Police Chief Rosie Sizer.
“This was certainly very meaningful for the person you saved,” Sizer said to the officers.
“And to the citizens, thank you for stopping [and] thank you for acting.”
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