A man accused of trying to kidnap a 7-year-old girl from Portland’s downtown waterfront pleaded not guilty Monday, two days after the child’s parents and several bystanders were left to do the job of protecting her themselves.

Daniel Vasey, 31, appeared in Multnomah County Circuit Court on charges tied to the deeply disturbing Saturday evening encounter near Salmon Street Springs, a place that was once better known for children playing in the fountain and families strolling along the Willamette than for naked men allegedly attacking strangers and grabbing young girls.

Portland police said 911 calls began coming in shortly before 7 p.m. on July 11 about a naked man wandering through the waterfront area. At least one caller reported that he had tried to punch someone in the head.

Despite the obvious warning signs, officers were not immediately available to respond.

Minutes later, the situation escalated exactly as anyone might fear it would. Another caller reported that the same man had grabbed a 7-year-old girl and was trying to pull her away from her mother.

According to investigators, Vasey seized the girl by one arm while her mother clung to the other and refused to let go. The struggle became so violent that the child was briefly lifted off the ground.

Her father and several bystanders rushed in, punching, slapping and pulling at Vasey until he finally released her. One witness also used an irritant spray to keep him away from the family and others nearby.

In other words, while Portland continues to debate its long-running mental health crisis, chronic street disorder and shrinking police presence, ordinary parents and strangers once again became the emergency response system.

The girl, who was visiting Oregon from another state with her family, suffered scratches but was not seriously injured. Paramedics treated her at the scene, and she did not require hospitalization.

The incident carries an even more troubling layer because Vasey had reportedly been arrested in Gresham only hours earlier and was back in public before the alleged kidnapping attempt. Portland and the surrounding metro area have spent years promising better crisis intervention, more treatment options and safer public spaces, yet the practical result here was a naked man allegedly assaulting people, a young child nearly being taken, and police arriving only after bystanders had already stopped him.

Tom McCall Waterfront Park remains one of Portland’s most recognizable public spaces, but scenes like this are becoming harder to dismiss as isolated. Areas once considered safe, welcoming places for families are increasingly associated with open drug use, untreated behavioral crises, public disturbances and emergency calls that may or may not receive a timely response.

The city can continue holding meetings, announcing programs and explaining staffing shortages, but none of that changes what happened Saturday. A mother had to physically fight to keep her daughter, strangers had to confront the suspect, and the police response came after the most dangerous part of the encounter was already over.

Suspect Found in the Willamette River

When Portland officers eventually reached the waterfront, they found the naked suspect wading in the Willamette River.

Vasey was taken into custody and booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center. Portland police listed charges of first-degree attempted kidnapping, second-degree attempted kidnapping, first-degree custodial interference, third-degree assault and harassment.

He pleaded not guilty during his first court appearance Monday.

The allegations have attracted attention not only because of what happened to the young girl, but also because of questions surrounding the amount of time witnesses said they waited for police to arrive.

Emilio Zamora, manager of Wheel Fun Rentals near the downtown waterfront, told KOIN that he did not hear any sirens and believed it took approximately 30 to 45 minutes for officers to reach the area.

The reported delay was especially alarming to those familiar with downtown Portland because the Portland Police Bureau’s Central Precinct is located only blocks from the scene.

Police officials said proximity to the station did not mean patrol officers were sitting inside and available to respond. At the time of the alleged kidnapping attempt, officers assigned to Central Precinct were already handling another serious incident involving a reported disturbance with a weapon at an apartment building.

With no Central Precinct officers immediately available, dispatchers called officers from North Precinct to respond to the waterfront. The Police Bureau’s official account confirms that North Precinct officers were sent after the call reporting that the girl had been grabbed.

Central Precinct Was Below Minimum Staffing

Portland police said only 11 officers were working in Central Precinct when the incident occurred. That was six fewer than the bureau’s stated minimum staffing level for the precinct.

Sgt. Matt Jacobsen of the Portland Police Bureau’s Major Crimes Unit explained that a large emergency can quickly consume most of the officers assigned to a particular precinct.

When that happens, the bureau may leave a small number of officers available for additional high-priority calls or request assistance from another part of the city.

The waterfront encounter appears to illustrate how quickly that system can become strained. Even though the alleged kidnapping happened close to a police facility, the patrol officers responsible for responding to emergency calls were occupied elsewhere.

Police response times have increased noticeably in Portland over the past several years.

According to figures reported by KOIN, the average response to a high-priority call was nearly 20 minutes last year. Lower-priority calls took an average of roughly an hour and a half.

In 2020, average response times were closer to 12 minutes for high-priority incidents and 75 minutes for lower-priority calls.

Portland police officials have attributed those longer waits to staffing shortages combined with a growing number of calls involving immediate dangers, weapons or threats to public safety.

“We don’t have the appropriate amount of police officers to handle the amount of demand for police services,” Deputy Chief Brian Hughes told KOIN.

Portland had 877 sworn police officers in 2025, according to the station’s report. That was 36 fewer than the bureau had in 2020.

However, the total number of sworn officers does not represent the number available to answer 911 calls at any given moment. The figure also includes detectives, supervisors, command staff and officers serving in specialized or administrative assignments.

That distinction has done little to quiet questions about why other trained and equipped officers could not leave their assignments to respond when a child was reportedly being taken only blocks away.

Hughes said moving detectives away from their ongoing cases and reassigning them to emergency calls would be challenging. Detectives may be working on homicides, robberies, assaults and other investigations that cannot simply be abandoned each time the patrol division experiences a shortage.

For parents and other members of the public, however, the case has highlighted a frightening reality: In a rapidly developing emergency, immediate help may have to come from the people already standing nearby.

Family and Strangers Refused to Let Go

The young girl remained with her family because her mother held onto her while her father and complete strangers stepped forward to help.

Their intervention turned what could have become an unthinkable abduction into a frightening but survivable encounter.

Salmon Street Springs is normally one of downtown Portland’s more inviting gathering places during the summer. Children run through the fountain’s shifting jets of water while families walk, cycle and relax beside the Willamette River.

That ordinary Saturday evening atmosphere changed within seconds when the girl was allegedly grabbed.

The people nearby did not wait to see what would happen next. They physically confronted the man and continued fighting until the child was released.

Portland police explicitly credited the girl’s parents and the bystanders with stopping the alleged kidnapping.

Arrested in Gresham Earlier the Same Day

Another troubling detail emerged following Vasey’s arrest at the waterfront.

According to KOIN, Vasey had been arrested approximately two hours earlier after a separate encounter with police in the parking lot of Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center in Gresham.

The circumstances of his release and how he traveled from the Gresham hospital area to downtown Portland were not fully explained in the original report.

The timeline is likely to bring additional scrutiny as the criminal case moves forward, particularly because the second arrest involved allegations that he attempted to take a child from her family.

Police Funding Debate Returns to the Spotlight

The incident also comes as Portland faces another heated debate about police staffing and how the city should pay for additional officers.

Backers of a proposed ballot measure have been gathering signatures for a plan that would direct 25 percent of Portland’s Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund toward police services. Organizers have said they collected enough signatures to potentially place the measure before voters in November.

The proposal has generated significant controversy.

Supporters argue that Portland cannot reduce emergency response times without a dependable source of money to hire and retain more officers. Critics say the proposal would take funding away from voter-approved climate, energy-efficiency and community programs.

Election officials must complete the certification process before the measure can officially appear on the ballot.

Regardless of how Portlanders feel about that proposal, the waterfront case gives the staffing debate an immediate and deeply human face.

A family visiting Oregon found itself fighting off a naked stranger who police say was trying to pull away their 7-year-old daughter. Officers were already stretched across other emergencies, leaving the girl’s parents and nearby strangers to become the first and most important line of defense.

Vasey has pleaded not guilty, and the charges against him remain allegations unless proven in court.

The child is safe, and on this summer evening beside the Willamette River, that outcome came down to a mother who would not release her daughter and a group of strangers who chose to run toward trouble instead of away from it.