A security guard stationed near the collapsing Centennial Mills building was struck by a driver early Friday morning in Northwest Portland, after the driver verbally threatened him during a confrontation over unauthorized access to the demolition site. The guard was not seriously injured, and Portland police took the driver into custody following a PIT maneuver, according to officers.
The incident began shortly before 4 a.m. in the 1500 block of Naito Parkway, according to KATU. Authorities reported that an unwanted person was in the area closed off for demolition of the burned-out Centennial Mills building when the confrontation escalated: the driver verbally threatened the guard and then struck him with the vehicle before fleeing the scene.
Officers located the vehicle and performed a PIT maneuver to stop it, then placed the suspect into custody safely, per the same KATU report. As of 6 a.m., the driver's arrest and jail booking status remained unclear. The station described the story as developing, with updates expected.
Why Guards Are Stationed at a Crumbling Flour Mill
The confrontation unfolded against the backdrop of an ongoing public safety emergency at the 116-year-old Centennial Mills complex. A four-alarm fire on Aug. 2 gutted the vacant flour warehouse at 1300–1500 NW Naito Parkway, destroying its interior floors and roof and leaving the eight-story structure at risk of immediate collapse, according to The Portland Tribune.
In the fire's aftermath, Portland Fire & Rescue established a safety collapse zone extending at least 1.5 times the height of the structure, and the outlet reported that unauthorized individuals repeatedly bypassed caution tape to enter the hazardous area — the same kind of trespassing that security guards posted at the site have been tasked with preventing. City contractors began demolition preparations on Aug. 14, using controlled implosions three days later to bring down the rooftop water tower before dismantling the outer walls.
By Aug. 18, the City of Portland Permitting & Development bureau announced that demolition crews had rapidly dismantled the building's exterior walls ahead of schedule, mitigating collapse risks to nearby rail tracks and roadways, per KGW. Under Portland Municipal Code Title 14, city agencies hold legal authority to establish restricted disaster perimeters, making it a citation-eligible offense for unauthorized persons to enter closed hazard zones or refuse to comply with site safety personnel, according to the city's municipal code.
A Site Already Under Strain
Friction around the Centennial Mills perimeter had already been building in the days before Friday's incident. On Aug. 13, city officials reported that Union Pacific ran 13 rail cars carrying hazardous residual chlorine past the collapsing mill, in violation of a requested safety pause — a clash Hoodline detailed in its earlier coverage of the rail dispute. Emergency safety closures around the collapse zone also forced the shutdown of nearby Fields Park and restricted vehicular traffic along Northwest Naito Parkway between 9th and 15th avenues through mid-August, according to the City of Portland.
Built in 1910 as a waterfront flour milling complex, Centennial Mills sat vacant for more than two decades while the City of Portland spent over $12 million exploring redevelopment concepts that never materialized, per KGW. As recently as April, commercial developers had submitted proposals to repurpose portions of the four-acre site, including a late-night entertainment venue pitched before the fire, as Hoodline reported in its coverage of a Vancouver club owner's riverfront ambitions.
The task of guarding an unstable, high-profile hazard site carries its own risks. Private security officers in Portland have faced serious workplace violence before, including the July 2023 fatal shooting of security guard Bobby Smallwood while he was on duty at Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital in Northwest Portland, according to KATU's Portland affiliate reporting at the time. Friday's incident adds another entry to that troubling pattern, even as the guard involved was not seriously hurt.
