See what officials are saying about two crimes, one of them that critically injured a man, and left bullet holes in buildings and signs in the Hazelwood neighborhood …
An evening after the incident, folks hare just having a good time at this outer East Portland fun spot, Boss Hawg’s Bar & Grill – but there was a shooting outside, after closing time on February 2.
Story and photos by David F. Ashton
Two shooting incidents that officials are calling “gang-related” took place, two days apart, in the Hazelwood neighborhood of outer East Portland.
Very early on Monday morning, at 2:11 a.m. on February 2, Portland Police Bureau (PPB) East Precinct officers responded to reports of a shooting outside Boss Hawg’s Bar & Grill, at 617 NE 102nd Avenue.
“Officers arrived in the area and contacted witnesses who reported hearing multiple gunshots, and vehicles leaving the area after the shooting,” reported PPB Public Information Officer Sgt. Pete Simpson. “Officers located evidence of gunfire and property damage, but no injured victims.”
Officers investigate a shooting incident that wounded two victims.
However, there were, indeed, gunshot victims from the shooting. Two men walked in the Providence Portland Hospital emergency room asking to be treated for gunshot wounds.
“When officers arrived at the hospital at 2:45 a.m., officers found the two victims, a 35-year-old male and a 29-year-old male, who were suffering from non-life-threatening injuries,” Simpson said. “Based on information gathered at both locations, the shooting appears to be gang-related.”
Simpson added that no suspect information was available to be released.
Stark Street Shootout
Officers from East Precinct and detectives on the Gang Enforcement Team begin their investigation of another gang-related shooting.
On February 4, at 10:07 p.m., East Precinct and Gang Enforcement Team officers rolled out to investigate a car-to-car shooting, after multiple calls to the 9-1-1 Center reporting a torrent of gunfire, and broken apartment windows.
Although officers located the victim vehicle on SE 139th Avenue, between E. Burnside and Stark Streets – they learned that the shooting took place a block away.
An ambulance rushes a gunshot victim to the hospital – he was struck during a car-to-car shooting.
“Officers located two apartments, in the 13600 block of SE Stark Street, that appear to have sustained damage from gunfire,” Simpson told reporters.
“Detectives learned that more than two dozen shots were fired, many of them striking the vehicle containing the victim, 22-year-old Michael James Gilbert,” Simpson added. “Other rounds were discovered to have hit nearby apartment buildings.”
The apartment complex was easy to find; a speed limit sign nearby was perforated with four bullet holes marked the area where the shooting took place. [Photo on our Front Page.]
These are two of the many bullet holes found in apartments on the north side of SE Stark Street, after a mobile gangster gunman sprays the neighborhood with gunfire.
One of the bullets ripped through a couch in the front room of apartment resident Kenneth Gibbs, who told reporters he was sitting nearby in an armchair about a half your before the gunfire erupted. Gibbs said he felt both lucky, and more fearful of living there after the event.
In the investigation that followed, detectives learned that Gilbert was in the passenger seat when someone in a black SUV fired multiple shots into the vehicle while on SE Stark Street. “Witnesses said that the suspect vehicle quickly sped out of the area westbound on Stark Street,” Simpson added.
Based on available information, that shooting also appears to be gang-related.
© 2015 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News
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