From left: Colleen Hunt and Russell Courtier
BY STEPHANIE PETIT @stephpetit
09/01/2016
An alleged white supremacist and his girlfriend have recently been indicted for murder after allegedly chasing down and killing a black teenager with their Jeep, police said.
According to police, couple Russell Courtier, 38, and Colleen Hunt, 35, allegedly came across 19-year-old Larnell Malik Bruce outside a Gresham, Oregon, 7-Eleven just before midnight on Aug. 10. Bruce was reportedly at the gas station charging his phone with a friend when Courtier and Hunt allegedly approached.
After Courtier and Bruce allegedly engaged in a physical altercation, the teenager pulled out a knife to protect himself, according to the Portland Mercury. Bruce then allegedly tried to run from the scene.
But with his girlfriend in the passenger seat, Courtier used his Jeep Wrangler to intentionally chase down and run over Bruce, police allege.
Bruce died from his injuries days later.
Prison records obtained by the Portland Mercury reveal that Courtier is a longtime criminal who was on parole – for attacking a woman with a knife – the night he allegedly ran over and killed Bruce. Courtier is also an alleged member of a white supremacist prison gang called European Kindred, even getting a tattoo of the group’s logo while in prison, according to the Mercury.
Courtier allegedly first got involved in the gang during a years-long stint at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution following a 2001 attack on a man, the paper reports, citing prison records. By 2004, Courtier was busted for allegedly fighting with a black inmate before “a group of white inmates faced off against a group of black inmates,” according to records.
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In 2015, he allegedly wrote a letter from a different prison to another EK member requesting backup from the gang because he was “getting run up on by redskins.” However, the message was intercepted by prison workers, according to the Mercury.
Courtier also allegedly threatened a prison guard of color that he would “take care” of him when he got out of prison, according to the paper.
Both Courtier and Hunt pleaded not guilty in Bruce’s death during an Aug. 22 court appearance, according to KGW. They were arrested on accusations of attempted murder, first-degree assault and unlawful use of a weapon, and were indicted on Aug. 19, according to OregonLive.
The couple remains in a Multnomah County detention facility on numerous charges with bail set at more than $500,000, police said. It was not immediately clear if they had retained attorneys.
Their trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 3.
Bruce was a stranger to the couple before he died, according to police. Since his killing, his family has requested privacy and has not spoken publicly.