SHOOTING REPORT | 11 Exclusive Photos | Multiple shooting incidents on Tuesday engaged both Portland and Gresham police. And, learn about a shooting on Friday that closed down SE Stark Street in Centennial throughout the afternoon, and into the evening commute …
A series of shootings, including three of them within a couple of hours, keep both Gresham and Portland officers on their toes.
Story and photos by David F. Ashton
As we keep an eye on violent crime in our neighborhoods, the trend is that stabbing incidents have been steadily increasing, and shootings have declined.
But that changed this week, with two days of shootings in outer East Portland.
August 19
Multiple shootings in Gresham and Portland wound two
At Pat Pfeifer Park in Gresham, officers arrive to investigate a shooting.
When gunshots rang out near the playground area of Gresham’s Pat Pfeifer Park late in the day on Tuesday, August 19th, several people called the 9-1-1 Center to report it.
The park, on NE 172nd Avenue about two blocks south of NE Glisan Street, is in the City of Gresham – so Gresham police officers were dispatched to that call at 5:51 p.m.
Witnesses told arriving officers that two men were shooting at each other, before they hopped into their vehicles and sped off.
Shootout on the street
while some Gresham Police officers are looking into the park shooting, others head out to a ‘rolling shootout’ reported not far away.
Then, an exchange of gunfire between moving vehicles followed, as they zoomed northbound on NE 172nd Avenue toward Glisan Street.
Back at the park, officers recovered 36 spent shell casings and other evidence. The intent may have been mutually murderous, but their aims seem to have been off.
Gunshot-wounded man walks into Hazelwood clinic
Perhaps by mistake, a wounded man is brought to this clinic in the Hazelwood neighborhood – instead of a hospital’s Emergency Department.
While this incident was unfolding in Gresham, Portland Police Bureau (PPB) officers were dispatched at 5:57 p.m. to “Adventist Health Primary Care – Parkrose” on NE 122nd Avenue between Wasco and Halsey Streets.
Reportedly, a man had been dropped off at the clinic – with a gunshot wound to his neck. The shooting victim was taken by ambulance to an area trauma hospital with serious, but non-life-threatening, injuries.
Yet another shooting, this time in Glenfair
Both GPD and Portland Police officers were dispatched on another shooting report at 6:35 p.m. that evening.
This time, the officers were headed to NE 148th Avenue, and not surprisingly, along NE Halsey Street.
Both a Portland Police and GPD officer find the reported Mercury SUV – with bullet holes in it.
A caller to the 9-1-1 Center told an operator that responders would see a red Mercury SUV parked out front, and a woman and wounded “boyfriend” hiding behind a house there, after he’d been shot.
Responding officers found at least two bullet holes in the back of that SUV. An ambulance took the wounded man to a local hospital, with what were described as non-life-threatening injuries.
One house to the east of where the shot-up SUV was located, officers examine a wrecked wrought iron gate.
Yellow police tape was strung up in front of the house where the shot-up SUV was parked, just around the corner past the house at 14904 NE Glisan Street – where a wrought iron gate had been smashed in. Officials haven’t said how this might be related to the case, but it’s part of the investigation.
“The Gresham Police Department is providing information about this incident,” PPB Public Information Officer Sgt. Kevin Allen later told East Portland News.
nto the evening, this shooting investigation continues.
And, according to GPD, “The investigation is ongoing.” If you have information about these shootings, contact Det. James Petersen at james.petersen@greshamoregon.gov or Det. Matthew Hardy at matthew.hardy@greshamoregon.gov and refer to Case No. 25-33940.
August 22
Centennial shooting victim hides from first responders
In the Centennial neighborhood, SE Stark Street is closed off while Portland Police officers look into a shooting – and try to find the victim.
On the first afternoon of the latest August heat wave, August 22, PPB East Precinct officers were sent to the 14700 block of SE Stark Street for another shooting at 2:45 p.m.
Officers had closed off SE Stark Street. There looked to be yellow evidence markers on both the north and south side of the roadway on 148th Avenue.
The officers’ attention was focused in front of the Paradise Adult Boutique and Smoke Shop.
From a block away, officers canvass the area where a bullet shell casing was located, made prominent by a yellow evidence marker.
“In the parking lot of the business at 14700 SE Stark Street, officers found evidence of a shooting, but no suspects or victims,” the PPB’s Sergeant Allen told East Portland News as the investigation was winding down.
“Officers and detectives with our Enhanced Community Safety Team (ECST) developed information that the suspect or suspects drove away before police were called,” he continued
A grouping of evidence markers are on the south side of the street – where this shooting was said to have taken place.
“Officers also learned that the victim possibly ran off, to the north. Numerous officers searched for, and eventually located, the victim hiding about a block away at 3:28 p.m.
“The victim appeared to have been shot; he was taken to the hospital by ambulance,” Sergeant Allen reported. “He’s being medically treated now. But, as of now, there has not been a prognosis about his condition.”
ECST detectives discuss the evidence they’ve located, in the shade of a building.
If you have information about this case, and have not spoken to police, e-mail it to crimetips@police.portlandoregon.gov attn: ECST, and indicate that it’s about Case No. 25-228823.
The similarity of some the August 19 incidents might lead one to speculate that the same suspects may have been involved in more than one of shootings, but that is pure speculation at this time.
© 2025 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News™
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