A memorial to commemorate the life of Barry Washington Jr. will soon be installed in downtown Bend. It’s going to be placed on the sidewalk where Washington Jr. was shot and killed on Sept. 19, 2021.
Washington Jr., who was Black and unarmed, was shot outside of a dance club after an altercation with Ian Cranston. Cranston, who is white, said the fight began because Washington Jr. flirted with Cranston’s fiancée.
Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler, who was a city councilor in 2021, said she learned of Washington Jr.’s death the same night of the killing.
“It was shocking to hear that someone had been shot to death downtown,” she said, “and then to hear that it was a young Black man.”
Washington’s mother, LaWanda Roberson, previously said she believed her son would be alive if he were not Black. Roberson did not respond to OPB’s request for comment.
City staff have approved a permanent bronze plaque memorializing Washington Jr. and will place it on the street corner where he was killed. An ephemeral memorial has adorned the site for years since his death, at times being defaced or destroyed, according to an organizer for the memorial, Jasmine Helsley-Barnett.
Helsley-Barnett is a self-described white ally and lives in Bend. She’s been involved with Washington Jr.’s memorial since he was killed.
She’s been part of a 150-member Facebook group dedicated to keeping an eye on maintaining the community memorial.
“There’s a lot of racism in our town, and that racism was directed towards his memorial,” she said. “The vandalism that occurred, I didn’t expect that.”
Vandalism of the new memorial is a concern. When the City of Bend painted a crosswalk in rainbow colors to celebrate Pride month last year, the crosswalk was vandalized by people leaving skidmarks with their vehicles on the newly painted area. A few doors down, a Pride flag was repeatedly torn down from 2023 to 2024 from the now shuttered Turtle Island Coffee Shop.
The city said the Washington Jr. memorial will have a weather resistant coating on it to reduce destruction and there will be cameras nearby to monitor the area.
In order for the memorial to be installed permanently, the city needed to change its public right of way policies for memorials and monuments.
Kathi Barguil, a Bend community relations manager, began working on Washington Jr.’s memorial shortly after starting her position with the city in 2023. She learned about other local agencies’ memorial policies and learned about potential intersecting city codes, like sign and sidewalk rules.
“It helped me gain a really good understanding of what was within the realm of possibility,” Barguil said. “We don’t have something to help facilitate this, so we have to create it.”
Local organizer Joslyn Stanfield said she raised about $3,800 in 24 hours through the grassroots community organizing group Central Oregon Earthseeds for the memorial. She also applied for sponsorship funding from the City of Bend to hold a dedication ceremony and for the costs to install the plaque. Stanfield helped Roberson deliver her design of the plaque.
Washington Jr.’s plaque will be bronze and stand about two-and-a-half feet high, according to Barguil. There will be a picture of Washington Jr., a Bible verse and quote by him.
A dedication ceremony is not yet announced for placement of the plaque, but Barguil said installation is expected to happen in late September or October.
Kebler said she is “absolutely” committed to ensuring that the memorial is installed on the corner of NW Wall Street and NW Oregon Street in whatever form the family wants, provided that it can be safely maintained. Both Helsley-Barnett and Barguil echoed support for Roberson and prioritizing her wishes.
But “until that plaque is put in the ground, I will not be celebrating,” Helsley-Barnett said.
When asked to reflect on what it felt like to help create city code and a permanent memorial for Washington Jr., Helsley-Barnett said, “Justice for Barry. That’s how it feels.”
This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.