Northeast Portland, Oregon, July 14, 2024. Thirty-year-old Aaron McInnis had just dropped off a friend when a stranger flagged him down, asking for help checking on a woman crying inside a nearby parked car. McInnis didn’t hesitate. He walked over to help.
Inside the car was 25-year-old Arvoni Hayes. What followed was a sudden, violent escalation that left McInnis dead and his 10-year-old son without a father — and left Hayes a fugitive for nearly two months before the U.S. Marshals caught up with him.
This video covers the night of the shooting, the weeks it spent as an unsolved case, the manhunt, the nearly two-year path through the Multnomah County court system, the guilty plea to a reduced charge under Oregon’s Measure 11, the September 2026 sentencing, and what it means that Aaron McInnis had no legal obligation to get involved at all.
On September 11, 2026, Arvoni Hayes was sentenced to 18 years in prison plus 3 years of post-prison supervision for first-degree manslaughter and unlawful use of a weapon with a firearm.
Related reading
No well-reviewed book has been written about this case specifically. For readers interested in true crime and the legal questions bystander cases like this one raise: Portland Oregon good samaritan true crime books.
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Sources
Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office, “Portland Area Man Sentenced to 18 Years Prison for Killing Good Samaritan,” September 11, 2026; KATU, “Man gets 18-year prison sentence for killing Good Samaritan in Portland: ‘Hero to the end,’” September 11, 2026; Law&Crime, September 13, 2026; Hoodline, July 30, 2026; Oregon Legislature ORS 163 (Measure 11 mandatory minimum sentencing).
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