Ian Olson
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Ian Richard Olson (14 September 2000 – 21 December 2018) was a 18-year-old white American who was murdered by black Afro-American thug Jeremiah Terrel Hannon (b. 8 October 2003) in December 2018 in the Motel 6 in northeast Portland, Oregon.
Contents
History
Murder
According to Ian's family, it happened exactly one week after the 18-year-old student (St. Helens High School) learned that he was free of the lymphoma he had been fighting for years. Jeremiah Hannon, who was in the midst of a "two-month crime spree," robbed Ian and shot him in the back of the head twice. A motel worker discovered Olson’s body when she entered the room to clean it. The dead teen’s mother said she found out the next morning about her son’s death -- by a bullet to the back of his head. She broke the news to the rest of the family three days before Christmas and the holidays will never be the same, she said.
- He was an Oakland Raiders fan and a daring BMX rider. He listened to Mac Miller and Flatbush Zombies. His favorite movies were teen classics: “Elf,” “The Sandlot,” “Napoleon Dynamite.” He enjoyed Rob Dyrdek’s television shows, video games like ”Call of Duty,” and Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham.” He was in a motel room, behind a sky-blue door. A gun went off. The housekeeper arrived and found a pool of blood. Ian Richard Olson, 18, was shot and killed in Portland, Oregon, on Dec. 21, 2018. The Oregon State Medical Examiner's Office determined he died of “homicidal violence.” – Sarah bentley, in: "Life lost behind a sky-blue door"
Trial 2019/20
On Friday, 1 March 2019, the 15-year-old accused of killing him made his first court appearance in the juvenile court. Jeremiah Hannon faced robbery and murder charges. In a separate case, Hannon was also accused (together with a second perpetrator) of beating a man in front of his wife and daughter on a MAX train just days after murdering Olson, knocking out several teeth and breaking his jaw.[1]
- His cousin, Teera Washington, told KOIN 6 News Hannon “doesn’t have the guidance that people need in order not to go to jail. … His mom’s incarcerated. His father has never really been there.” Hannon’s friend, Alexis Hoy, said the trouble stemmed from “the people he’s hanging out with. … He’s just never had anybody.” Not surprisingly, Olson’s lifelong friend, Jordan Rhode, had a different take. “Honestly, f— Jeremiah. He’s a terrible kid and he needs to spend the rest of his life in prison.” Rhode said he knew Olson since 1st grade. “We just became best friends.” Olson didn’t complain about his cancer, and Rhode said he sat with him while he went through chemotherapy. “He was just a strong person. I always felt like he was going to beat cancer, too. And that’s what happened.”[2]
Deputy District Attorney Eric Zimmerman said Hannon was in the midst of a two-month crime spree that began in November 2018 by “picking on” a homeless man on a MAX platform. Court papers alleged that weeks later Hannon and a teenage friend broke the jaw and knocked out the tooth of a fellow passenger on a MAX train after the man told them to turn down their music. In all, Zimmerman read the case numbers of more than a dozen criminal investigations that had been launched against Hannon. “It’s sickening that our young people engaged in this type of behavior,” said Zimmerman, during Hannon’s sentencing hearing Wednesday. “I just wish we could get it stopped before it spirals out of control.”
- During the hearing, Zimmerman also read aloud a letter from Olson’s mother, who was identified only as “Ms. Hanks.” “Not one day doesn’t goes by that I don’t cry for Ian,” wrote Olson’s mother. “...There’s no amount of time that’s acceptable for what you’ve done.” She wrote that Hannon will be released from juvenile lock-up in “a few short years” -- but she and her family will be serving a life sentence without her son. She wrote her son survived bouts with two types of lymphoma, one so severe that he required a stem cell transplant. She said he was on the path to recovery. “He was cancer free for seven days -- no more hospitals, no more daily blood draws," she wrote. “You took that all away from him on the night of Dec. 21, 2018.”[3]
Jeremiah Terrel Hannon, 17 (over two years later), pleaded guilty on Wednesday, 4 November 2020, to second-degree murder. In addition to admitting he murdered Olson, Hannon admitted responsibility for the third-degree assault of the man who suffered a broken jaw during the MAX train assault on 27 December 2018, and the second-degree robbery of another person’s phone on 30 December 2018. Hannon was officially sentenced as a juvenile in Multnomah County Circuit Court to up to 20 years of incarceration, but under Oregon law he must be let out by his 25th birthday, therefore, at the lastest, in October 2028 (→ black privilege).
Commemoration
A celebration of his life was held on Saturday, 12 January 2019, at the Village Inn Restaurant and Lounge in his hometown of St. Helens, Oregon.[4]
