Portland man behind series of anti-Asian attacks charged with third bias incident for assault and robbery

A Portland man linked to two recent anti-Asian attacks is facing another set of charges for a third bias incident that reportedly occurred in April.

Dylan Kesterson, 34, is facing a total of 23 charges after KGW8 learned on Tuesday that he was involved in a bias incident on April 9. Court documents reportedly revealed that he robbed, threatened and physically injured a person in what authorities described as a racially motivated attack.

Kesterson was charged with first-degree bias crime, second-degree theft, third-degree robbery and fourth-degree assault for that incident.

Last month, Kaito Nakajima, a 21-year-old Japanese man studying English in Portland, Oregon, came forward to the media and said that he was also attacked by Kesterson near a Safeway branch at Southwest 10th Avenue and Jefferson Street on June 25.

“Maybe the F-word, so dirty words, and after that I was slapped, [on] my cheek two times,” Nakajima told KGW8. “My hat was stolen after that and the guy go away, somewhere. He ran off.”

Kesterson was reportedly not charged for that incident. He was already in custody for attacking a Japanese man and his 5-year-old daughter along Portland’s Eastbank Esplanade on July 2.

Authorities also linked Kesterson to another alleged incident on April 17, where he racially intimidated two women, attacked one of them and then harassed another female victim. One of the victims from the incident was reportedly a Filipino woman, identified as Tyra Blackmon from Bay City, Michigan, who was in Portland on vacation.

After Kesterson was arrested on July 2, he was arraigned on July 6 in Multnomah County Circuit Court. He is being held without bail and reportedly entered a not-guilty plea. He is scheduled to return to court on Aug. 24.

Featured Image via KGW News

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