Citizens duck for cover during gangster shootout

It’s amazing that nobody was killed or wounded, say witnesses, in this mid-day gun battle …

The most clear evidence of the shootout is a shot-out window at this Shell gas station.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton
Workers and customers at a gas station, auto supply store, and restaurant found themselves ducking for cover – as gunshots rang out at about 11:15 a.m. on January 21, near the outer East Portland intersection of SE Foster Road and SE 82^nd Avenue.

“I heard a bunch of ‘bangs’, then a ‘zip-zing’ kind of sound,” said Jeremy Rodgers, who said he was picking up lunch at the Taco Time, some distance west of the gunplay, when bullets hit the restaurant located at Peterson Plaza.

“Someone shouted, ‘Someone’s shooting!’ and we all ducked down,” Rodgers told East Portland News. “I’ll bet it was gangsters shootin’ it out. I’m not so hungry now.”

Bullets also struck this Taco Time store – indicating that a number of shots were fired here.

Although their building was hit by bullets after the shootout, workers at this store remain mum.

No one wanted to comment about the incident at Automotive Outfitters, located just east of the shootout on SE 83^rd Avenue, south of SE Foster Road. However, that building was also stuck by bullets.

Police were talking with workers at the Jackson’s Shell service station and minimarket, after cordoning it off with yellow police tape.

Portland Police Bureau Gang Enforcement Team investigators were called in to conduct an investigation, reported the Bureau’s Public Information Officer, Sgt. Pete Simpson.

Police investigate this midday shootout, but tell us they don’t yet know who was involved, or why.

“Preliminary information is that the shots may have been fired after a dispute between two men,” Simpson said. “At this point there is no good suspect information to share.”

As he watched a dozen police vehicles wheel into the area, Rodgers commented, “This is crazy, just crazy! I can’t believe that that they’re shooting it out – here, in broad daylight.”

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