By all indications, the threat of any potential attack should have long subsided.
On May 27, Jack Billowitz and a friend were cycling back into town from a group ride. The pair had just completed the Tuesday Night Hammer Fest, an unorganized bicycle ride which traces the Twin Bridges Scenic Bikeway. On the weekly ride, about 20 to 30 riders show up to simulate a road race. Attackers go off the front; counter-attackers take off in pursuit. Master riders mentor younger riders. More often than not, attackers get reeled in.
Returning to town, the Hammer Fest riders splintered off. Billowitz, who was 16 at the time, and his friend, who’s 17, rode through the Tree Farm development before coasting down Skyliners Road.
The ride was over. No more attacks.
They rode two abreast. The friend rode in the bike lane and Billowitz rode opposite the white line, slightly in the lane of traffic. The two wore Lycra cycling kits and helmets. They let gravity ease them down the slope past the intersection with NW York Drive, toward the roundabout at Mt. Washington Drive. (The roundabout construction along this stretch of Skyliners Road hadn’t begun by the date of this ride.) It was shortly before 7pm and the evening rush hour had flushed out of the streets.
Then, the cyclists heard a rumble, approaching from behind.
A driver of a white Ford F-150, with HD Construction logos on its doors, passed the riders, Billowitz said, before slamming to a stop in the middle of the road about 100 feet before them. The cyclists said they slowed as the driver, wearing a black HD Construction t-shirt, got out and marched toward them. The cyclists said they thought the driver had dropped something.
“Was it you? Was it you?” The driver demanded, pointing, according to witness testimony in the subsequent police report.
That’s when, according to the report, the driver, Michael Adin Wild, used both hands to shove Billowitz off his bike and to the gravel shoulder. He landed on his right side, smacking the back of his head.
Medical records would later show that he suffered a concussion, among other injuries. A local bike shop estimated that about $3,700 worth of damage to Billowitz’s bike, valued at $10,000, resulted from the incident. In photos provided to the Source, his rear derailleur snarls like a scorpion’s tail, bent inward against the cassette.
According to the police report, Billowitz’s riding partner yelled at Wild to leave his friend alone. Billowitz, dazed, lay next to his bike. Wild, who was 41 at the time and whose name HD Construction & Excavation is registered to, stood over Billowitz, loudly reciting, “Stay in your lane.” Billowitz, and several witnesses, told police that it looked like Wild was going to hit Billowitz with a raised fist. Meanwhile, Billowitz told police that he heard a young girl’s voice coming from inside a black GMC SUV that stopped behind Wild’s truck:
“Daddy, stop. Don’t do it.”
Joseph Flannery, driving with his wife, Michelle Fitts, arrived at the scene. In her report to police, Fitts said she saw Wild stop in the road, “walking forcefully” and aggressively toward Billowitz before shoving him off his bike. Fitts got out of the car and separated Wild from Billowitz. It looked like he was going to “pummel him.” She too heard the little girl’s plea. Wild then got in her face, she said. He also “got in the husband’s face,” according to the police report, when he joined the group. Fitts reported hearing Wild yell at Billowitz, again, to “Get the f*ck out of the road.” Wild returned to his truck and drove off, according to the report, as did the black SUV.
Billowitz called the Bend Police Department’s non-emergency line. Then he called his parents.
The day after the May 27 incident, Billowitz, who has a cumulative 4.326 grade point average, left school after his first class because the pain was too much. Doctors’ visits, which included X-ray and CT scans, indicated that Billowitz suffered a concussion. In photos reviewed by the Source taken on May 28, an egg-shaped bruise is visible behind Billowitz’s left ear. His neck and back hurt, Billowitz said.
In another photo taken that day, his shoulders were misaligned by 2 inches — a stark contrast his chiropractor soon evaluated, having just adjusted Billowitz the morning of the incident. Billowitz’s medical bills have totaled nearly $11,000. And then there was the damage to Billowitz’s bike. An inspection at Project Bike in Bend placed damage costs higher than $3,700.
Police arrested Wild on charges of Assault in the Fourth Degree, Disorderly Conduct in the Second Degree and Criminal Mischief in the First Degree, which is used when there is more than $1,000 in alleged damages. A plea hearing has been scheduled for Oct. 6 in Deschutes County Circuit Court.
Wild’s defense attorney is Phil Duong, a senior attorney at Baxter Law, who only agreed to speak off record.
Duong said Wild was not interested in making a statement. According to his Baxter Law webpage, Duong has “extensive experience in litigation, DUIIs, and person and property crimes at the felonies and misdemeanors levels.” He also identifies as an “avid cyclist.”
Matthew Scarborough, a lawyer specializing in bicycle law, is representing the Billowitz family. Reached by phone, Scarborough indicated that Wild may plead self-defense. Yet, Oregon’s self-defense statutes do not protect a motorist leaving their vehicle to assault someone.
“There’s no reason to stop your car on a busy road and get out and then push over a cyclist in ‘self-defense,’” Scarborough said. “And I think that’s what the officer figured out as well.”
Some might argue that Billowitz was in Wild’s lane of travel, but cyclists are allowed to ride two-abreast, according to ORS 814.430. And they’re allowed to take the lane when approaching the speed of traffic or to avoid a road hazard. Especially approaching a roundabout.
“We want there to be some justice and some attention so maybe this case doesn’t happen again,” Scarborough said. “Jack is a super, super talented guy. I think he has every capacity in the world, especially after he gets out of high school, to go pro — if that’s what he wants to do.”
‘Are you OK?’
Bend Police officers Jon Adkins and Logan Stevens were the first to respond to the scene. They took statements from both cyclists, the married witnesses and the teenager who happened onto the scene. In his report, Adkins noted that both cyclists were tall; in their kits, they looked like professional athletes.
Following directions from the officers, the witnesses later updated their photos and videos, which depict Michael Wild, the position of his parked truck and the tail-end of the confrontation, into an online evidence database. The Source also received many of these photos and a video. The license plate captured on the white SUV matches that which the police logged in their report, registered to HD Construction.
One of those witnesses was a teenage boy who was walking on a footpath. He heard shouting and began filming with his phone. In this footage, reviewed by the Source, Wild stands in close proximity to Flannery. Fitts is nearby.
“You just assaulted him!” Fitts is heard saying.
“I didn’t assault anyone,” Wild said.
“Bullshit! You totally did. We just watched you,” Fitts said. “Oh, my god.” In the video, Wild walks past the black SUV toward the F-150. Flannery can be seen taking photos of the two vehicles.
“F*ck!” Wild can be heard shouting.
“Are you OK?” said the unseen woman driving the black SUV.
“Yeah,” Wild replied, climbing into his truck. The video shows the two vehicles leaving together, eastbound toward the Mt. Washington Drive roundabout.
‘I thought, This is it.’
During an interview with the Source on Sept. 2, Billowitz sat next to his mother, Layla Billowitz, outside a coffee shop. Billowitz is polite and soft-spoken. He recalled the event — particularly the thoughts that went through his head as Wild allegedly stood over him with a balled fist.
“I really thought, ‘Well, this is it,’” he said.
As he did on May 27, Billowitz wore his cycling kit, emblazoned with Donovan Racing, a youth cycling development team. His road bike, which has since replaced the one damaged in the incident, leaned against a nearby wall.
Layla Billowitz is the team director of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association. She’s coached since 2018. Jack officially joined NICA as a sixth grader in 2019.
That Billowitz showed up wearing his Donovan Racing kit is worth noting. For months since May 27, Billowitz, not wanting to be recognized, would only wear nondescript cycling kits on his rides.
Members of the local cycling community — all adults — took turns riding with Billowitz so he wouldn’t be alone. Layla and her husband, Rodney Billowitz, also shuttled their son to and from trailheads in the Deschutes National Forest, where he could disappear between the trees.
During his freshman year, Billowitz won the junior varsity Oregon high school mountain bike championships. He won the varsity category his sophomore year, placing third as a junior. Billowitz has also finished a number of triathlons in addition to competing on his school’s varsity Nordic ski and swim teams for the past three years. After the incident, Billowitz let his training take the backseat to his physical and mental recovery.
After a few weeks, Billowitz was back in the saddle, preparing for a string of local and national bicycle races. On July 29, he competed in the High Cascades 100, a mountain bike race that stretches 100 miles through the Deschutes National Forest. He completed the race in 7 hours and 10 minutes — finishing 10th in the Open Men’s category. On Sept. 6, Billowitz placed third in the 17-18 junior men category at the UCI-sanctioned Missoula XC Short Track race.
Jack is vying to for a spot on Team USA’s cyclocross squad, which will race in Europe this winter, Layla said.
A longtime local race promoter, Chuck Kenlan has been the president of the Oregon Bicycle Race Association since 2018. That’s a year after Billowitz began competing in OBRA events, racing in the nine- and 10-year-old categories.
“Jack stood out from a lot of other nine-year-olds because he was so dedicated,” Kenlan said. “After getting to know his family, you knew that they weren’t pushing him; it was all motivated by Jack. Competition is really important to him. He’s a very driven young man.”
Cody Peterson, 46, who’s an elite racer, coach and Project Bike employee, continues to take Billowitz on training rides on the road. (Billowitz hasn’t felt safe returning to the Hammer Fest.) Peterson said altercations between drivers and cyclists, from his perspective, are rare.
“Road rage is not really that big of an issue,” Peterson said. “But every now and again, someone just wants to prove how tough they are in a very heavy, powerful vehicle, against someone on a bike who’s basically wearing underwear.”
Peterson said he’s been impressed by how Billowitz has processed the incident.
“Jack’s a great guy. He’s come a long way, and he works really hard. I don’t think that can be understated,” Peterson said.
Of the upcoming trial, Layla said her family would like Wild to pay for her son’s medical bills and damage to his bike.
“I’d also like to see him convicted of his crimes in order to deter other people from assaulting cyclists,” Layla said.
‘Your story doesn’t make sense’
A little before 10 pm on May 27, a couple hours after the incident on Skyliners Road, Bend Police Officers Adkins and Stevens arrived at the Wilds’ residence. After reading his Miranda Rights, Adkins asked Wild what happened on Skyliners.
“It wasn’t a big deal,” Wild said, according to Adkins’ report. He hadn’t contacted the police about the incident because it had little effect on him. He said he’d passed the cyclists with no emotion, but when he looked in his rear-view mirror, he noticed his wife, who was driving their children in a black GMC SUV, was stuck behind the bicyclists. Wild told Officer Adkins that he believed he saw the rider make a hand gesture, preventing his wife from passing. Wild went into “protective mode” and “did not know what was going on,” he told the officers. He couldn’t elaborate on why he thought the cyclist was a threat to his wife. He repeated that he did not know what was going on, according to the report. Wild said he placed his hands in front of himself and that Jack ran into him, causing him to fall off his bicycle.
Wild confirmed to Officer Adkins that he told Billowitz, while he lay in the gravel, to “Stay in your lane.” Yet he denied balling his fist or acting as if he was going attack him again, according to the report.
“Your story doesn’t make sense,” Officer Adkins told him. Why did Billowitz fall over and not Wild? And why stop in the middle of the road? Asked the cyclist’s age, Wild guessed early 20s. When Adkins told him Billowitz was 16, he was “highly surprised.” Asked if that changed the way Wild viewed the situation, he said no, reiterating that it wasn’t a big deal.
Officer Stevens informed Wild that he was under arrest and cuffed his wrists. Wild’s wife, who has not been charged with a crime, also spoke with officers, telling police she and her husband had just left their son’s baseball game. Their two children rode in the black SUV. She said she remembered two cyclists, one of whom was in the road. She couldn’t see what happened between Billowitz and her husband, although she recalled him approaching them. She told the officers that it was hard to pass the riders. Wild’s wife couldn’t explain why it was hard to pass, although she confirmed that there were not many oncoming cars. She added that her daughter hadn’t witnessed the event; but when Officer Adkins told her that witnesses heard the child calling for her dad to stop, she stopped providing information.
Officer Stevens transported Wild to the Deschutes County Jail to be booked and lodged, according to the report.
Recently, on Sept. 8 around 10 am, traffic at the scene of the incident on Skyliners Road was brisk but not clogged — the road is about 35 feet wide, not counting the 6-foot-wide bike lanes that ribbon each side. Vehicles, about half carrying mountain bikes on racks, trucked along, abiding the posted 35 MPH speed limit. Skyliners is a popular thoroughfare for folks staging mountain bike rides at Phil’s Trailhead. Cyclists on road and gravel bikes also often ride the road on the way to any number of forested loops.
Additionally, Skyliners is a convenient route for motorists heading to the Pacific Crest Athletic Fields and Skyline Park & Sports Complex. Corroborated by the photos and videos taken by witnesses, the scene of the May 27 incident is about 100 feet west of the intersection with NW York Avenue; at that junction, a yellow diamond-shaped roundabout sign recommends a speed of 15 MPH. The sign stands about 200 feet before the Mt. Washington Drive roundabout.
Wild has been convicted of speeding violations in Oregon in the past, but he doesn’t have a violent criminal record. A search through the City of Bend’s records found that HD Construction & Excavation has numerous permitted projects within Bend, yet none with the City itself, an official confirmed.
A troubling reality
In speaking to the Source, Jack Billowitz said he wants to spread awareness about violent altercations.
“I’ve just tried to put the [incident] as far out of my mind as I can,” Billowitz said. “But I think it’s really important for our cycling community to understand that, even though Bend is full of bike-friendly drivers, these things can happen.”
Layla spoke up: “Being a parent of a cyclist is like having a piece of your heart, out there, riding a bike. We wanted to go public with this because we don’t want a similar thing to happen to anyone else. Or their child.”
This article appears in the Source September 11, 2025.
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The cyclist was indicating he was “taking the lane” with a hand gesture that every driver in Bend has seen before. Very frequently right before a roundabout, as was the case here. Going down hill at this location cyclists can easily keep with the flow of traffic, as people normally slow to 15mph before the circle, especially riders that can pace with the “Hammerfest”. Some folks in cars just get impossibly disagreeable if they have to follow a bike into a traffic circle. That said, any cyclist will tell you that that is the only way they feel safe to navigate one. We get used to the yelling and people flashing their 1finger salute. But some folks get caught at their anger management worst. Wow- that Wild guy needs therapy, but old fashioned law and order is also indicated for people who are in denial. What a terrible example for his daughter, too.
It might be helpful to see the referenced video made public. Perhaps the Source could reach out to secure and publish a copy in a follow-up article?
Do we know if HD Construction & Excavation is still employing Wild? The public should know if this company is continuing to employee someone who assaults and batters a kid on a bicycle.
It’s his company.
Are you sure that’s a bike lane? Looking at it on Google Maps, I don’t see any signage or markings on the pavement identifying as such. It looks like a fog line and a paved shoulder, not a bike lane. There appears to be a MUP adjacent to the road.
If it’s a fog line, neither cyclist was required to be to the right of it.
Excellent reporting. This young man sounds like he has a great future ahead of him, and I hope this assault and battery doesn’t slow him down too much. In a week when we’re learning the dangers of letting kids kids grow up “too online,” it’s great to hear about one young man making his way in the real world with some grace during a trying time. Our society needs to support healthy, offline, social activities like cycling. Literally beating kids is not the way.
Great reporting. I hope you’ll be following up on the court hearings and proceedings that follow.
@Rodrigo, yep, I will.
This is awesome! These guys have been screwing me over for months with their project. They’re consistently crossing my line with their trash. They’re also crossing my property line and stealing my water on multiple occasions and also broke my fence. Total s*** show company! They don’t know what they’re doing and literally cemented the conduit under the property and have been ripping up the roads for weeks. They we’re working 7 days a week, 12 hours a day breaking the rules and working past. I can’t stand them! I hope she gets every penny that kid deserves.