Man slain in Lents ‘drive by’ shooting

This second shooting in Lents, in the same day, is a reportedly a ‘drive by’, and is being investigated as a murder. Here’s what’s been learned about incident, so far …

As the sun sets, SE Henry Street is blocked off by police as they investigate a homicide on this Lents neighborhood side street.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton

The scene at the eastern intersection of SE 92^nd Avenue and Henry Street ranged from somber to chaotic, after a man was shot and killed there on April 24, just before 7:00 p.m. – which brought Portland Police Bureau (PPB) East Precinct officers, and later Homicide Detectives, to the area.

Friends and neighbors quietly talked outside the police line, until a woman, claiming to officers that she was the deceased’s wife, dashed under the yellow police tape and was escorted away.

A PPB Forensics squad team member is escorted into the crime scene.

“What I heard was that it was a ‘drive-by shooting’ from someone who lives close by,” said neighbor Ray Mills. “Crime seems to be getting worse; you know, more violent here; and [Mayor] Ted Wheeler, the Police Commissioner doesn’t seem to care – he’s to busy working on ‘social issues’ instead of reducing crime,” Mills told East Portland News.

In fact, this was the second shooting incident of the day; another shooting, about 10:00 a.m. that same morning, critically wounded a man, about a dozen blocks to the northwest of this incident.

An officer’s business cards mark the positions of discarded bullet shell casings, left behind after what one neighbor described as a “drive by shooting”.

Officers and detectives share information about the shooting.

Again, joining the other dozen officers at the scene, the PPB Mobile Command Center pulled into the area, as the latest investigation got underway.

“Officers canvassed for involved parties, witnesses, and evidence, and located evidence of gunfire,” said an unidentified PPB spokesperson, also confirming that the Detective Division’s Homicide Team had come to conduct an investigation.

Portland Police say this is a family photo of the shooting victim, identified as 34 year-old Robert Lewis IV.

The next day, officials said that the Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office performed an autopsy and determined the cause of death had indeed been caused by a gunshot wound, and identified the victim as 34 year-old Robert Lewis IV.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact Homicide Detective Vince Cui at (503) 823-0449 or vince.cui@portlandoregon.gov.

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