A 70-year-old man has been charged with second-degree manslaughter and unlawful delivery of fentanyl after a fatal suspected overdose at a MAX station in Gresham. Victor M. Salas-Camargo was arrested by transit police investigating the death, according to the agency overseeing the case.
The charges were announced in a news release from the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, which stated plainly that “Victor M. Salas-Camargo, 70, has been charged with second-degree manslaughter and unlawful delivery of fentanyl following a fatal suspected overdose at a MAX station in Gresham.” The sheriff’s office also shared the announcement on social media under its handle, @MultCoSo
, in a post headlined “NEWS RELEASE: Transit Police Arrest Man Following Deadly Fentanyl Overdose.”
Second-degree manslaughter in Oregon is codified under ORS 163.125, according to the Oregon Legislature’s statute records.
A County Grappling With a Fentanyl Surge
The arrest lands against the backdrop of a fentanyl crisis that has reshaped Multnomah County over the past several years. A county mortality report found that overdose deaths involving the drug averaged just two per month in 2018 and 2019, but by 2022 that figure had climbed to 22 deaths a month, the same report notes.
Provisional figures for 2023 suggested the toll kept rising, with nearly 36 fentanyl overdose deaths recorded per month, according to the county’s report. Altogether, the report tallies 868 people who have died from fentanyl overdoses since 2018, a count that includes only partial data for 2023.
Where and How the Deaths Are Happening
The same county data shows the drug is increasingly mixed with other substances: in 2018, 27 percent of fentanyl overdose deaths also involved another drug, a share that rose to 63 percent by 2023. Most of the county’s fentanyl deaths in 2023 were concentrated in downtown Portland, particularly in the Old Town and Pearl District neighborhoods, per the report.
The report also found that people likely experiencing houselessness accounted for 20 percent of fentanyl overdose deaths in 2022, a proportion that rose provisionally to 25 percent in 2023.
