There’s been another violent incident on the Bear Creek Greenway. It’s a trail with a history…the David Grubbs murder and an attempted rape near Talent come immediately to mind.
Now police say a transient man shot at three people with a .44 caliber black powder revolver as they were walking along the Greenway on Tuesday morning.
“I think the victims are lucky they didn’t get more seriously injured,” said Lt. Mike Budreau with the Medford Police Department.
According to police, three people were walking down the Bear Creek Greenway when they encountered a homeless man in the brush off the bike path.
Lt. Mike Budreau said “That’s when he started confronting them saying get out of here, do you want to fight.”
Police said the homeless man followed the group, which comprised of two women, one 20-years-old and the other 17-years-old and an 18-year-old man. According to officers, the homeless man tried to pick a fight. Pretty soon, police said the homeless man opened fire with a handgun.
Two people were hit with what was described as a metal ball round from what’s believed to be a muzzle loading gun.
“So they all began running away, it looks like the male fired four to five shots,” said Lt. Budreau.
Police said the situation could have been much worse since both victims only had bruises from where they were hit.
Authorities arrested 53-year-old Joseph Matejko, a transient man, is in jail facing three counts of Attempted Murder and two counts of Assault in the 2nd Degree.
Police said when they found him, he was holding a handgun. When police told him to drop it, he did. Officers also found two 44-caliber black powder revolvers near the area they found Matejko.
In the two hours Matejko was on the run, police said he shaved his head and beard.
© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.