Officers are kept running from call to call – from Lents, to Powellhurst-Gilbert, to Hazelwood, and to Parkrose – responding to more shootings this week …
Another day of ‘shots calls’ keep, officers running from call-to-call, throughout outer East Portland.
Story and photos by David F. Ashton
Not that long ago, shootings took place late at night, or in the wee hours of a morning’s darkness. But, nowadays, it’s commonplace for gunshots to ring out during the daylight hours.
Two months and four days ago, on May 14, Portland’s Police Commissioner and Mayor Ted Wheeler boldly announced, “A coalition of law enforcement and non-law enforcement partners are collaborating in an effort to quell the gun violence public health crisis in Portland.” [CLICK HERE to read his proclamation.]
Sadly, the “gun violence public health crisis” continues, interminably, across outer East Portland.
June 14
Man wounded in Foster Floodplain Natural Area ‘campground’
Crime scene tapes warns news reporter to say out of the Foster Floodplain Natural Area while officers investigate a shooting in a camp set up near SE 110th Avenue.
At 10:15 a.m. on June 14, Portland Police Bureau (PPB) East Precinct officers were dispatched to investigate a shooting in Lents – once again to the Foster Floodplain Natural Area along SE 110th Avenue, a block south of SE Foster Road.
This was the same location of a shooting on March 8; CLICK HERE to read about it.
As we walked along SE 110th Avenue, the stench of human waste wafted eastward across the road; the reek was coming from where a multi-year, $25 million project to mitigate flooding has since turned into a highly-populated homeless campground.
Inside this camp, a PPB Enhanced Community Safety Team investigator gathers information, after a man is found shot nearby.
“Officers found a shooting victim, who was transported to the hospital with a non-life-threatening injury,” reported PPB Public Information Officer Lt. Greg Pashley.
Investigators from the PPB’s Enhanced Community Safety Team (ECST) arrived to investigate as officers searched the area, and they located a suspect. “Officers recovered a firearm, which was stored as evidence,” Pashley told us.
Charged with two Felonies and a Misdemeanor related to this shooting is 32-year-old Jeffery Vance Dahlke. MCDC booking photo
Officers arrested 32-year-old Jeffery Vance Dahlke; he was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center (MCDC) at 2:03 p.m. that afternoon on two Felony charges of Assault in the Third Degree, and Felon In Possession of a Firearm.
At his arraignment, Dahlke learned that he’d face an additional Misdemeanor charge of Reckless Endangering. At deadline, he’s still lodged in MCDC in lieu of $17,500 combined bail.
June 14
Two more shootings, back-to-back
In addition to the bona fide Foster Floodplain shooting, two more “Shooting – with Weapon” calls were dispatched, both of them logged in at 2:24 p.m. At least 10 police units were assigned to each call, leaving most their districts temporarily without officers.
In the Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood, at SE 122nd Avenue and Division Street, officers looked – but didn’t find evidence of a shooting.
At the other location, not far away, in the Hazelwood neighborhood at NE 122nd Avenue at East Burnside Street, officers did find an incident. “This was an argument between the drivers of two separate vehicles; one of the drivers said he heard a shot and believed it came from the other vehicle,” Lt. Pashley reported. However, that impression was not verified by any evidence or other witness statements; the second driver had already left the area.
June 14
Still the same day, two more “Shots Fired” calls
Officers, from both North Precinct and East Precinct, investigate more shooting calls.
At 4:50 p.m., North Precinct officers were dispatched to the Parkrose neighborhood near the intersection of NE 89th Avenue and Wygant Street for “Shots Fired”. “Here, officers found broken windows at a residence, possibly damaged by a pellet gun,” commented Lt. Pashley.
Then, at 6:01 p.m. East Precinct officers were sent to SE Foster Road near 98th Avenue – the “east triangle” couplet area of Lents Town Center. “A caller reported hearing gunshots in the area, but no victim came forward, and evidence of gunfire as not found,” said Lt. Pashley.
June 15
Car-to-car shooting rocks Hazelwood neighborhood
A shooting brings officers, and Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office patrol deputies, to this quiet street in the Hazelwood neighborhood.
The next day, in the late afternoon of June 15, a misty rain drifted over the quiet residential streets of the Hazelwood neighborhood – then, on a street north of NE Glisan Street shots shattered the silence, along NE 109th Avenue, and also on NE Oregon Street.
A white sedan was chasing a SUV southbound on NE 109th Avenue, from NE Hassalo Street, toward Oregon when the shooting began, a neighbor told East Portland News. “I heard two shots, then three shots – bang, bang, bang!” she articulated.
A PPB Forensics Division investigator takes photos of evidence along NE Oregon Street.
The lead car, a white GMC Yukon Denali, veered to the west, making a sharp left turn just before reaching NE Oregon Street, then traveled along the side yard of a house, broke down a fence, and smashed the corner off the its garage, before coming to a stop next to the fence at the properly line.
A couple of the officers who had been dispatched to the scene at 4:51 p.m. remarked that they were astonished by what they saw. The PPB officers were soon joined by two Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office deputies, one of them with a police dog.
After a GMC Yukon Denali drove through the yard, the vehicle tore out a corner of a garage; an officer walks up to investigate the damage.
Investigators note at least one bullet hole, in the driver’s side of this SUV.
Neighbors told PPB ECST investigators that they saw a dazed-looking female, with blood streaming down her face, walking down the street with her dog, looking for help. She said nothing, neighbors reported, other than that someone had been shooting at her.
So far, there is no official word from Portland Police about what developed after that. However, if you have information to pass along to detectives, please email it to crimetips@portlandoregon.gov and reference Case No. 21-162483.
© 2021~ David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News™
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