Shootings and homicides rage across outer East Portland

UPDATED: ‘Will these shootings ever end?’ asks a neighbor. Many other folks are wondering the same thing. This time, two on the same day, at the same location, both called homicides …

Across outer East Portland, law enforcement officers are called to episodes of gun violence – this week, from the Lents to the Parkrose neighborhoods.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton

The unrelenting stream of “Shots Fired” calls – some, leave people wounded, others uncovering murders – bringing Portland Police Bureau (PPB) officers out to investigate, continues to surge across outer East Portland. Two of them, at the same location – on the same day – resulted in a homicides.

Even with this continuing, rising gun violence, and East Portland neighborhoods increasingly at risk, it seems that the Commissioner of Police – Mayor Ted Wheeler – is still under pressure from other members of the Portland City Council not to reinstate the PPB Gun Violence Reduction Team – or something like it.

September 28: 12:52 a.m.
Man wounded in Sumner neighborhood shooting

Officers don’t find a victim, but they do find evidence of a shooting at this intersection.

PPB North Precinct officers were dispatched to the intersection of NE 82nd Avenue of Roses at Sandy Boulevard to look into another shooting.

While officers found “evidence of a shooting”, there wasn’t any victim at the scene.

“Later, at 1:38 a.m., an area hospital reported an adult male victim who walked in with a gunshot wound from the shooting; his injuries were non-life-threatening,” said PPB Public Information Officer Derek Carmon.

September 29: 1:47 p.m.
Shots fired at main Lents Town Center bus stop

SE Foster Road is closed to traffic, as officers look into a daytime shooting at a TriMet bus stop.

It was PPB East Precinct officers who were sent to look into this daytime shooting incident, located under the I-205 overpass on SE Foster Road, in the westbound lanes of the couplet through Lents Town Center.

At first, all of the westbound lanes of the street were blocked to traffic, as twelve police units responded, including one with the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office. Within a short time, one lane of the thoroughfare was reopened to motor vehicles.

Evidence is collected at the scene of this shooting.

“When will these shootings ever end?” rhetorically asked Dave Newton, who said he’d heard the shots fired while leaving a TriMet MAX Light Rail train at the station nearest the shooting area. “It seems that this kind of violence is getting worse out here,” he told East Portland News.

“Officers arrived and found evidence of gunfire; but no known victims have been located at this time,” reported PPB Public Information Officer Melissa Newhard. “However, this investigation is ongoing.”

Officials aren’t saying if they believe that the person we saw being questioned by police on a Lents neighborhood street is involved in this shooting.

As of 4:30 p.m. that afternoon, six police cruisers were still working the case along neighborhood side streets, with an additional officer on the way.

Anyone with information about the incident and has not been contacted by investigators, they are asked to contact Detective JD McGuire at Jeff.McGuire@portlandoregon.gov.

September 30: 10:07 p.m.
‘Walking wounded’ says little about his shooting

Some gun violence cases become known only after the victim is taken to the emergency department of a hospital.

Officers were dispatched to a “local hospital”, as officials put it, when a man walked in with a gunshot wound.

How and where the person was shot remains unknown.
“The victim would not provide specific details of the incident, and officers have not been able to locate a crime scene,” the PPB’s Officer Newhard reported. “No arrests have been made. His injuries were determined to be non-life-threatening.”

October 1: 5:31 a.m.
Victim shot dead, in Parkrose along Sandy Boulevard

Police return to investigate the first of two shootings that day, outside this Parkrose neighborhood market. This one left a man dead.

A man lay in the street, bleeding to death, after being shot on NE 111th Avenue, just south of Sandy Boulevard – and that summoned PPB North Precinct officers just before dawn on the first morning of October.

“After arrival, officers determined that a person at the scene was deceased,” said a PPB official.

The PPB Mobile Command Center serves as an office for Homicide Division detectives, to facilitate their investigation.

It wasn’t long until the PPB Mobile Command Center pulled up to the scene, and the investigation by its Homicide Division detectives got underway.

UPDATE

The victim in this case, shown here in a DMV photo, was identified as 52-year-old Jimmy Lee Melton, known as “Jamie” to his friends; officials say he died of a gunshot wound.

Anyone with information about this incident contact Det. Scott Broughton at 503-823-3774 or Scott.Broughton@portlandpolice.com; or, Detective Joseph Corona at 503-823-0508 or Joseph.Corona@portlandoregon.gov.

October 1: 7:46 p.m.
Two more wounded in Parkrose, on NE 111th Avenue

While candles are still burning brightly on this shrine erected for the man that died in a homicidal shooting earlier the same day, another shooting takes place there, wounding two; one of them died. A bullet shell casing from the second shooting is in front of the red cone, to the right.

North Precinct officers were again called to NE 111th Avenue, just south of Sandy Boulevard, on October 1 to look into reports of another shooting there.

It wasn’t long until the PPB Mobile Command Center rolled back into the area, providing a workspace for Detective Division investigators for this, the second shooting at this location, in the same day.

Officers lock down NE 111th Avenue, from Sandy Boulevard to Wygant Street.

“Officers found two individuals with gunshot wounds; their medical status is not available at this time,” PPB spokesperson Officer Newhard first reported.

Later, Newhard revealed, “Portland Police Bureau detectives confirm that there was one person killed and another person was injured in this shooting,” she said. “The person who was injured is expected to recover,” the police spokesperson noted.

A PPB Forensics Division Crime Scene Investigator takes a photo of a bullet casing left behind after this shooting.

“Additional information will be released at the direction of the investigators,” Newhard concluded.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact Detective Anthony Merrill at 503-823-4033 or Anthony.Merrill@portlandoregon.gov or Detective Shaye Samora at 503-823-0768 or Shaye.Samora@portlandoregon.gov.

Officers stand by, as this investigation continues into the night.

Crime Stoppers still pays cash for tips
Crime Stoppers of Oregon offers cash rewards of up to $2,500 for information, reported to Crime Stoppers, that leads to an arrest in any unsolved felony crime and tipsters can remain anonymous.

So, send in tip on this, or any other crime – and do so safely and securely – by contacting Crime Stoppers of Oregon online [CLICK HERE] or by phone, at 503-823-4357.

© 2020 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News™

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