Bullets fly in outer East Portland – on one occasion, with fatal result

Week #175 Shooting Report | INCLUDES SHOOTING INVESTIGATION VIDEO | Almost unbelievable was the number of spent shells that were found in the fatal Lents shooting; meantime, shots in Parkrose troubled neighbors … 

Police close off the area to investigate deadly shooting in Lents Town Center, reported to have killed a young mother.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton

After a week or so of a relative ceasefire in our part of town, Portland Police Bureau (PPB) East Precinct officers, and those from the Bureau’s Focused Intervention (FIT) and Enhanced Community Safety Team (ECST), were again called to shootings – one deadly – in outer East Portland this week.

October 15
Mother of three murdered in Lents Town Center shooting

Working for hours, PPB investigators keep finding more evidence at this intersection along SE Foster Road.

A stupefying number of yellow plastic evidence markers showed the location of the many spent bullet shells that littered the intersection of SE Foster Road at 86th Avenue, as dawn broke on October 15.

When the PPB East Precinct officers dispatched at 4:12 a.m. to this “Shots Fired” incident arrived, they found three people with gunshot wounds – and one of the victims was declared deceased at the scene.

Investigators find a bullet hole in this parked Hyundai sedan along SE 86th Avenue.

The two surviving shooting victims were taken to a local hospital with what a PPB official characterized as “life threatening gunshot wounds”.
PPB Homicide Unit detectives blocked off the streets for most of the day while PPB Criminalists from the Forensic Evidence Unit and Detectives processed the scene and collected evidence.

Evidence markers were also used to show the location of a can of aerosol deodorant, and what appears to be a woman’s purse, about a block south of SE Foster Road along 86th Avenue.

All the markers in the street were not just pinpointing the dozens of spent bullet shell casings found in the street, but also objects dropped by victims or witnesses. Detectives also found bullet holes in parked vehicles and buildings in the area.

Investigators also found what appeared to be two different purses, as could be carried by a female.

It’s startling to see the number of evidence markers surrounding this Chevrolet Avalanche truck, abandoned in the middle of the street after the shooting.

Investigators spent a considerable amount of time looking in and around a silver Chevrolet Avalanche pickup truck, stopped facing southbound on SE 86th Avenue, just south of Foster Road.

Watch, as Portland Police Homicide Division detectives CSI workers, and officers investigate this shooting:

“The sounds of so many gunshots and ricochets woke me; I shoved my wife out of bed onto the floor and dived over her,” neighbor Franklin Loe told East Portland News as he watched the investigation unfold.

“We hear shooting every now and then, but nothing like this,” Loe added, gesturing towards what appeared to be at least 89 yellow evidence markers littering the street.

SE Foster Road is filled with police vehicles, including the PPB Mobile Command Center, which acts as a portable office for detectives and investigators.

The Portland Police Association President, Aaron Schmautz, acknowledged that the pace of shootings has been slower than the record set last year, but it is still about twice the historical average.

“Officers are kept on the run, working at a fast pace, to keep up with all the different issues that come up,” Schmautz told reporters.

An officer puts another bag of evidence into the back of this police cruiser.

Officials say this woman, 26-year-old Cali M. Durbin, was murdered by gunfire during this shooting. Family provided image

On October 20 officials revealed that 26-year-old Cali M. Durbin, a mother with three kids, who had killed in the shooting. The Medical Examiner determined that she’d died of Homicide by Gunshot Wound.

Anyone with information on this incident who has not yet spoken to police is asked to contact Detective Jeffrey McGuire at Jeff.McGuire@police.portlandoregon.gov or Detective Jeff Sharp at Jeff.Sharp@police.portlandoregon.gov, referring to Case No. 23-270284.

October 16
Parkrose shooting brings out PPB Tactical Team

Downhill, northward along NE 111th Avenue toward Sandy Boulevard, officers spread out to investigate a shooting in Parkrose.

The following evening, on October 16, PPB North Precinct officers were sent at 6:53 p.m. to a “Shooting-with Weapon” call to NE 111th Avenue, just south of Sandy Boulevard.

By the way, this was the same exact location where a shooting killed one person, and wounded another, on the evening of October 1 three years ago in 2020. (CLICK HERE to read about that.).

Arriving officers learned from those nearby that there had been a disturbance in which a gun had been fired. Officers located a victim, who did not have life-threatening injuries. PPB officials were artfully vague as describing just how the victim had been injured.

An officer riding atop one of the PPB’s SERT “heavy armored vehicles” keeps a watchful eye, as officers find a “person of interest” at the scene of the “disturbance”. Courtesy KOIN TV News 6

News reporters were kept at a distance as the investigation unfolded.

As part of it, officers learned that a “person of interest” might be in a nearby residence. The PPB Special Emergency Reaction Team (SERT), the Police Bureau’s tactical team came, was there for some time, then dispersed.

10:08 p.m. a PPB official provided the terse statement: “This incident is now resolved and SERT is clearing the scene; there is no ongoing risk to the public.”

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© 2023 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News™

 

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