Week #74 Shooting Report | One person is dead, another wounded from gunshots in outer East Portland this week – we agree that any shooting homicide is too many. And, officers keep running from one ‘Shots Fired’ call to another – see our Shots Fired Report for the week …
Night and day, seemingly without end, Portland Police Bureau officers are sent to the scene of shootings across our area. Sadly, it doesn’t look like this will end anytime soon.
Story and photos by David F. Ashton
Shooting murders, wounding by gunshot, and bullets sent flying in our neighborhoods continues this week.
Portland Public Safety recap
On July 1, 2020, when Portland’s Commissioner of Police, Mayor Ted Wheeler officially disbanded the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) Gun Violence Reduction Team, our law enforcement agency has been without a uniformed team solely dedicated to putting an end to shootings by criminals using guns, leading to soaring rates of violence and mayhem in our streets.
Earlier this year, the PPB initiated its Enhanced Community Safety Team (ECST); but the mission of this section of the Bureau purely investigatory, not preventative.
In July 2021, Mayor Wheeler announced the formation of a PPB Focused Intervention Team (FIT), a unit that was supposed to have started operating in November. However, Wheeler did advocate for additional – “one time” – funding for the PPB not long ago, and he did reveal his “Public Safety: Refocus, Reform, Restaff” plan, to help discourage criminals from using guns and from shooting at law enforcement personnel, as well as at the residents of East Portland.
In an online press conference with reporters, PPB Chief Chuck Lovell says he anticipates that new team will reduce shootings, sometime in the future.
Chief as high hopes for ‘FIT’
In the East Portland News Week #72 Shooting Report, Chief of Police Charles “Chuck” Lovell said, “I’m hoping that the implementation of the ‘Focused Intervention Team’ will help …”
Although City leadership assures the public that the FIT is “taking shape”, and its hand-picked “Community Oversight Group” continues to meet (their last meeting was in mid-November) in order to form and mold this police unit into something they feel to be acceptable, the shootings continue and more people are murdered.
December 6
Deadly daytime shooting in Madison South
Officers close off the only street leading into the area where a deadly, daytime shooting has taken place, in the Madison South neighborhood.
Although there have been three deadly shootings in our metropolis during this, the first full week in December, only one of them – so far – was in outer East Portland; in the Madison South neighborhood.
On December 6 at 10:52 a.m. officers from East Precinct were dispatched to a “Shots Fired” call at a unit of the expansive near the Ellington Apartment Homes development, in the 800 Block of NE 66th Avenue. At first, official said little about this shooting.
Then, just before publication, on December 10, a PPB official revealed that the deceased person had been identified as 41-year-old Omar Greely; and, that the Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an autopsy and determined Greely died from a gunshot wound and ruled his death a homicide.
Officials say that his man, 41-year-old Omar Greely, fired a shot while attempting to enter an apartment unit, before he was fatally wounded by a resident. Family provided photo, via PPB
“Evidence at the scene suggests Greely was attempting to force his way into an apartment, armed with a handgun, and fired a shot – before being shot and killed by a resident of the apartment,” a police bureau spokesperson said. “The person who shot and killed Greely called 911 and remained at the scene, is cooperating with the investigation, and is not being identified at this time.”
Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact Detective Scott Broughton at (503) 823-3774 or email at scott.broughton@portlandoregon.gov or Detective Rico Beniga at (503) 823-0457 or email at rico.beniga@portlandoregon.gov – and let them know this is about Case No. 21-340645. Or, if you want to provide investigators with a tip, by email, send it to crimetips@portlandoregon.gov.
December 5
Man shot, wounded, in Lents armed robbery
After a man is shot, during an armed robbery, he is rushed to a local hospital, in the Lents neighborhood, to be treated for serious injuries.
PPB East Precinct officers were dispatched on the report of a shooting on December at 9:49 p.m., to SE 82nd Avenue of Roses at Holgate Boulevard, on the edge of the Foster-Powell neighborhood.
“There, officers located a man bleeding profusely, and immediately applied a tourniquet,” PPB Public Information Officer Sergeant Kevin Allen told East Portland News. “The victim was transported by ambulance to a local hospital with serious, but not life-threatening, injuries.
“Looking into the incident, officers later learned that a yet-unknown suspect attempted to rob the victim; and, during the struggle, the robber shot the victim in his leg,” Sgt. Allen added.
This armed robbery/shooting remains under investigation. If you can provide investigators with a tip, email information to crimetips@portlandoregon.gov; and reference Case No. 21-340193.
December 6
Midnight shootout in Centennial
Fortunately, arriving officers didn’t find maimed or murdered victims at the scene of this midnight shoot in the Centennial Community Group neighborhood; but, they did find “evidence of shots being fired” there.
The sheer volume of gunshots fired along SE Powell Boulevard at 170th Avenue, just after midnight on December 6, generated so many calls to the 9-1-1 Center that dispatchers sent ambulances to the area as well as PPB officers.
“Officers did find evidence of a shooting, but did not locate any victims,” is what Sgt. Allen later told us about this incident.
“Witnesses in the area told the officers they believed several people, who had since left in vehicles, had been shooting at one another,” he said, adding that there were no known injuries, and no arrests have been made so far.
This shootout remains under investigation. If you can provide investigators with a tip, email information to crimetips@portlandoregon.gov; and reference Case No. 21-340318.
~ SHOTS FIRED LOG ~
Across outer East Portland, officers keep investigating shootings. “Shootings seem to run in cycles; and, cold wet weather seems to tamp down this kind of violence,” an officer told us at a crime scene this week. Still, there having been 37 “Shots Fired” calls this week indicates that our “season of shootings” is not yet over.
At many “Shots Fired” calls, officers do not find victims, or any evidence of shootings.
December 2
21-337178 12/02/2021 20:28:43 7700 Block of SE KNIGHT ST
21-337239 12/02/2021 22:32:19 9300 Block of SE SALMON CT
21-337321 12/02/2021 23:36:13 12200 Block of SE BOISE ST
December 3
21-337348 12/03/2021 00:21:44 5800 Block of SE 91ST AVE
21-337421 12/03/2021 02:41:02 6100 Block of SE 87TH AVE
21-337467 12/03/2021 04:31:23 1500 Block of SE 85TH AVE
21-337878 12/03/2021 14:13:22 7400 Block of SE 122ND AVE
21-338100 12/03/2021 18:51:07 1700 Block of NE 82ND AVE
21-338178 12/03/2021 20:35:35 NE WHITAKER WAY / NE 138TH AVE
21-338288 12/03/2021 22:35:14 13800 Block of E BURNSIDE ST
21-338381 12/03/2021 23:44:41 00 Block of NE 147TH AVE
December 4
21-338420 12/04/2021 00:16:10 00 Block of NE 148TH AVE
21-338442 12/04/2021 00:38:43 11200 Block of SE PINE CT
21-338447 12/04/2021 00:50:42 5700 Block of NE GOING ST
21-338513 12/04/2021 03:03:17 9100 Block of NE HASSALO ST
21-338862 12/04/2021 12:37:09 3300 Block of SE 170TH AVE
December 5
21-339357 12/05/2021 00:23:44 NE 65TH AVE / NE SANDY BLVD
21-339359 12/05/2021 00:24:37 4500 Block of NE 105TH AVE
21-339512 12/05/2021 04:09:42 3300 Block of SE 122ND AVE
21-339545 12/05/2021 05:11:02 14800 Block of SE FOSTER RD
21-340019 12/05/2021 18:14:25 12800 Block of NE SANDY BLVD
21-340135 12/05/2021 20:20:20 200 Block of SE 127TH AVE
21-340184 12/05/2021 21:35:47 4600 Block of SE 122ND AVE
21-340252 12/05/2021 23:09:22 11200 Block of SE BROOKSIDE DR
21-340266 12/05/2021 23:30:09 7700 Block of SE 92ND AVE
December 6
21-340390 12/06/2021 03:21:58 SE 119TH AVE / SE CLINTON ST
21-340449 12/06/2021 05:51:56 4300 Block of NE 85TH AVE
21-341075 12/06/2021 21:57:55 14700 Block of SE DIVISION ST
21-341140 12/06/2021 23:39:25 6200 Block of SE 71ST AVE
21-341147 12/06/2021 23:48:06 3400 Block of NE 78TH AVE
December 7 [There were 18 calls outside our area]
21-341764 12/07/2021 15:51:54 NE 80TH AVE/NE MASON ST
December 8
21-342139 12/08/2021 01:12:48 4500 Block of SE 122ND AVE
21-342303 12/08/2021 08:18:26 12000 Block of SE PINE ST
21-342323 12/08/2021 08:47:05 18200 Block of NE RIVERSIDE PKWY
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
We are sincerely looking forward to reporting about the end of this reign of armed violence, but clearly, that time has not yet come.
We’ll keep covering whatever happens, and bring it to you right here, every week.
Stay safe.
© 2021 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News™
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