Week #88 Shooting Report | For the second week in a row, no shooting murders! But, learn about the numerous shooting incidents that did put people in the hospital, and holes in buildings and cars. Also, Mayor Wheeler has another ‘Gun Violence’ press conference …
With shootings in the Parkrose, Parkrose Heights, Lents, and Hazelwood neighborhoods, and guns seized in Mill Park, it’s been a busy week for Portland Police Bureau officers.
Story and photos by David F. Ashton
It feels odd to celebrate the fact that, for two weeks in a row, outer East Portland has experienced no gunshot murders. Sadly, though, this wasn’t true in other parts of the city.
Find out what’s been learned about some of the more high-profile shootings this week, read what officials had to say during a press conference hosted by Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler – and watch the entire video if you like – plus, check out this week’s “SHOTS FIRED LOG”.
Major shooting incidents
March 11 at 6:19 a.m.
Shooting injures man in Lents
There’s not much information about this sunrise shooting, in the Lents neighborhood. Courtesy KATU-TV 2
It wasn’t just a few shots; at least 17 shots were fired at this sunrise shooting along SE 103rd Place, just south of Martins Street and north of SE Foster Road.
Reportedly, a man was wounded and taken by ambulance to a local hospital for treatment. No media requests from reporters, including East Portland News, have yet been answered by the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) regarding this shooting. This shooting incident is Case No. 22-65755.
March 11 at 3:18 p.m.
Person at a street camp wounded in Hazelwood
Officers and FIT investigators respond to a shooting just north of the TriMet MAX Light Rail Blue Line.
Seven PPB East Precinct officers were dispatched to a shooting about a block north of East Burnside Street on NE 99th Avenue. Officers looked around the homeless encampments that lined the side street.
At evidence markers, showing the location of a bullet casing, were in the center of the street.
Investigators check one of the spent bullet casings, and other evidence left behind, at the scene.
Members of the PPB’s Focused Intervention Team (FIT) arrived to investigate.
According to records, a person was wounded in this shooting; the extent of the injury is not known. The Case No. is 22-66190.
March 12 at 6:42 p.m.
Apartments shot up in Hazelwood
Rain doesn’t stop shootings; the yellow evidence markers show the location of spent bullet casings glistening in the rain along SE 127th Avenue, just south of East Burnside Street.
Seven PPB East Precinct officers, and a K9 unit were called to a shooting on SE 127th Avenue, just south of East Burnside Street.
In the rain, and into the night, officers assisted members of the PPB’s Enhanced Community Safety Team (ECST) as they looked into this shooting incident.
Officers said at the scene that no one had been injured, but they pointed out bullet holes in the side of an apartment building.
An ECST investigator looks for, and finds, bullet holes in this apartment building.
“It’s quite likely this was another drive-by shooting, but it’s difficult to say for certain,” the officer said.
If you have information about this incident, it’s Case No. 22-67358.
Additional injury shooting cases
Although the PPB Public Information Office was not able to provide information about these shootings, emergency medical response was dispatched to all three of them.
March 13 at 12:17 a.m.
This was a midnight shooting in Powellhurst-Gilbert at SE 82nd Avenue of Roses at Brooklyn Street.
Case No. 22-67562
March 14 at 12:24 p.m.
Parkrose daylight shooting on NE Sandy Boulevard near 91st Avenue
Case No. 22-68952
March 15 at 10:26 p.m.
Parkrose Heights shooting on NE 102nd Avenue, south of the I-84 Overpass
Case No. 22-70320
If you can provide information about any of these shooting incidents, send tips, including a reference to its Case Number, by email to crimetips@portlandoregon.gov.
FIT Officers continue to seize guns
Giving hope to the otherwise dismal picture of ongoing violence, the new PPB Focused Intervention Team unit seized three guns, in two separate cases, on March 11.
About three hours apart, and 1.4 miles away, FIT officers find these items during the two different gun seizures. PPB images
- 7:15 p.m. – Mill Park: FIT officers arrested two occupants of a vehicle, both of whom had outstanding warrants, in the Mill Park neighborhood near SE 122nd Avenue and Lincoln Street. Officers recovered over 38 grams of powder cocaine, 7 grams of crack cocaine, and a semiautomatic handgun. This is Case No. 22-66394.
- 10:25 p.m. – Powellhurst-Gilbert: Officers discovered and seized two firearms at SE 122nd Avenue and Holgate Boulevard, where they arrested one person (charges not provided). This is Case No. 2266538.
Mayor Wheeler holds another
‘Gun Violence’ press conference
Portland Mayor’s Office spokesperson Rich Chatman begins, and moderates, this month’s “Public Safety Press Conference”.
On March 17, the Portland Chief of Police, along with Police Commissioner, Mayor Ted Wheeler, held another online “Public Safety Press Conference” – less than a month after a similar outreach on February 22. It was again moderated by his new spokesperson, Rich Chatman.
Apparently in the Portland City Hall City Council Chambers, Chatman introduced the on-camera participants: Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Gabriel, Chief Deputy District Attorney Kirsten Snowden, Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell, Portland Police Sgt. Duilio; as well as Djimet Dogo and Lyn Tan from the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization.
Starting off the program with lasted over an hour, each of those in attendance was ushered to the front podium to provide information about their respective organizations, and told how they are working to reduce shootings across the city.
Portland Police Bureau Chief Chuck Lovell shares grim shooting statistics during the press conference.
“We’re already at 20 homicides for this year, 19 of which were gunshot victims,” Portland police Chief Chuck Lovell said. “For 2022, we’re averaging 21.9 shootings per week; currently that’s just under 650 shootings for the year. If this trend continues, we’ll end the year with just over 1,500 shootings, which would be a 14% increase over last year, and a 266% increase over 2019.
“That’s why we’re here today: Because we’re committed to stopping, and then reducing, this rising trend.”
Although the shooting statistics show little overall improvement, Portland Police Bureau Chief Chuck Lovell commends district officers and members of the FIT and ECST squads for their hard work.
He commended his Bureau’s FIT officers, reporting that in their first two months of operation, they’ve recovered 19 firearms, and arrested 32 suspects for various crimes. “These including gun-possession crimes, aggravated assault, robbery-related crimes, carjacking, and traffic-related crimes such as reckless driving and DUII,” said Lovell.
“For every shooting and every homicide, there is someone who has information; we want to bring closure to the affected, so please use Crime Stoppers to send in information,” Lovell requested.
“Our criminal justice system is simply in crisis,” says Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney Kirsten Snowden.
Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney Kirsten Snowden said their “gun violence referrals are up over 450%”, and has “consumed over 150 years of prosecutorial experience in the last year alone”.
When questioned by a reporter, Snowden could not say how many prosecutors have left the DA’s office. She did say that their office is focusing its resources on prosecuting the most violent offenders.
Mayor Wheeler talks about the importance of “Community Partners” for reducing shooting crimes.
At several times during the presentation, Mayor Wheeler referred to the work being done by “community partners”, many of them funded by the Portland Office of Violence Prevention’s 2021 – 2022 Gun Violence Reduction Grant program.
The fourth round of awardees was to have been announced in “early January, 2022” – but as of this week, no information on those grantees has been posted on the city’s website.
Questions, and some answers
Cases solved rate
When Chief Lovell was asked about the police department’s shooting homicide “clearance rate” – the percentage of such crimes solved – he replied, “Clearance rates are tricky, they fluctuate because it takes time to investigate them. Some of the challenge is the current volume of cases. We used to have ten homicide investigators; now we have close to twenty, soon to be twenty-five, working to solve homicide cases.”
PPB Retire/Rehire Program
After it was pointed out that about 80 officers are scheduled to retire in July, Lovell was asked about the PPB’s $500,000 “Retire/Rehire Program”. Lovell said he was hopeful that it would increase staffing. “We now have 780 sworn officers here, the lowest number in my career,” he observed.
But, when a reporter pointed out that, so far, the PPB Retire/Rehire Program has not recruited a single officer, Mayor Wheeler chimed in. “Early indications are [officers] are not interested.
“Am I frustrated?” Wheeler posited rhetorically. “No. It hasn’t worked the way we we’d hoped. But that’s not the ‘only game in town’; there are other strategies that I’ll support.”
A reporter asks Mayor Wheeler what his understanding is of the “root causes” of “gun violence”.
Root causes of shootings
“I’m going to be careful here, because I’m not a social scientist,” Wheeler waded in.
Wheeler said his “best belief” is that “there are some overarching societal reasons for this. First of all, there is a trend in America that if we see a conflict, we take out a gun and shoot at it. We are not good, as a society, at resolving conflict in a de-escalated, peaceful manner.
“Other societal issues relate to a sense, on the part of many in our community, and in our nation, that many don’t have either economic or educational opportunities – there’s a lot of frustration and anger out there, related to a lack of family security and a sense of hopelessness about the future, that I’m told definitely plays a key role.
“And, at a pragmatic level in our community, we obviously are awash in guns, drugs, gang violence – and perhaps, more than anything else – we’re seeing the retaliatory nature of shootings in our community. One shooting begets another shooting,” Wheeler remarked.
Watch the entire press conference here:
~ SHOTS FIRED LOG ~
Although there are almost double the shooting incidents resulting in injuries this week than last, the number of “Shots Fired” calls is down by almost half from last week, totaling 26.
March 9
22-64569 03/09/2022 23:01:28 2400 Block of SE 135TH AVE
March 10
22-64626 03/10/2022 00:31:24 SE 72ND AVE / SE HAROLD ST
22-65238 03/10/2022 16:07:44 SE 157TH AVE / SE FRANKLIN ST
22-65578 03/10/2022 23:28:32 4000 Block of NE 78TH AVE
March 11
22-65674 03/11/2022 02:36:49 3500 Block of SE 153RD AVE
22-65703 03/11/2022 03:49:53 SE STARK ST / SE 140TH PL
March 12
22-66640 03/12/2022 00:11:23 4100 Block of SE 66TH AVE
22-08975 03/12/2022 00:16:51 200 Block of NE 162ND AVE
22-08981 03/12/2022 01:22:56 700 Block of NE 162ND AVE
22-67287 03/12/2022 17:06:48 200 Block of NE 103RD AVE
22-67358 03/12/2022 18:43:22 00 Block of NE 125TH PL
22-67518 03/12/2022 22:56:37 SE SCHILLER ST / SE 111TH AVE
22-67655 03/13/2022 04:54:42 7300 Block of SE 84TH AVE
22-68300 03/13/2022 20:23:49 8300 Block of NE GOING ST
22-68376 03/13/2022 22:02:44 12100 Block of SE BROOKSIDE DR
22-68378 03/13/2022 22:03:59 11700 Block of SE OAK ST
March 14
22-69463 03/14/2022 23:25:06 SE 162ND AVE / SE STARK ST
March 15
22-69528 03/15/2022 01:25:10 4100 Block of NE 82ND AVE
22-69583 03/15/2022 03:39:55 3300 Block of SE 112TH AVE
22-69599 03/15/2022 04:19:15 7300 Block of SE 103RD AVE
22-70055 03/15/2022 16:22:03 NE 111TH DR / NE SISKIYOU ST
22-70156 03/15/2022 18:22:01 NE 80TH AVE / NE SISKIYOU ST
22-09490 03/15/2022 22:49:43 16500 Block of NE HALSEY ST
22-70368 03/15/2022 23:40:53 2300 Block of SE 142ND AVE
March 16
22-70437 03/16/2022 02:07:28 4100 Block of NE 82ND AVE
22-70451 03/16/2022 02:38:26 9100 Block of NE IRVING ST
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
As observed in our weekly “Shooting Reports”, the Portland Police Bureau’s new Focused Intervention Team (FIT) continues to improve public safety in outer East Portland, despite their limited numbers. In addition to taking guns from the hands of felons, they’ve arrested impaired and/or wild drivers, and helped solve other crimes.
The efforts of those working in all branches of the Portland Police Bureau give us reason to hope for more peaceful neighborhoods in the foreseeable future.
© 2022 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News™
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