Wreck leads to wild gunshots, in Lents

Take a look, and see how an everyday, outer East Portland car wreck, quickly turned into a bizarre crime scene …

This Lents neighborhood smashup turned much more serious, after an occupant of the gold Pontiac Grand Am started shooting a gun into the air.

Story and photos by David F. Ashton

A half-dozen Portland Police Bureau (PPB) squad cars, with emergency lights flashing and sirens blasting, headed to the intersection of SE 84^th Avenue and Duke Street on the afternoon of April 8. It appeared to indicate a major incident.

Yet, as we arrived at the scene of the two-car smashup at 5:56 p.m., all appeared relatively calm.

After being struck by the driver of a car who blew a stop sign at the intersection, this Honda minivan veered off the road, and into a yard.

After being struck, a white Honda Odyssey had gone over the sidewalk, flattened the steel fencepost of a chain-link fence, and brushed the corner of a house. And, a gold Pontiac Grand Am four-door sedan was stopped near the middle of the intersection.

“One of the guys in the Pontiac got out, started yelling, and shot a gun into the air a couple of times, then all of them ran away,” neighbor Charlie Doan told East Portland News.

Another person at the crash scene mentioned as he walked by, “There’s an open bottle of Hennessey [Cognac] in the car.”

Officers look inside the Pontiac, after bystanders point out a bottle of booze in the vehicle.

Soon, even more police units arrived, including some from the PPB Gang Enforcement Team, as well as criminalists from the Forensic Evidence Division.

“Officers learned that the Honda was westbound on SE Duke Street, and the Pontiac was southbound on 84th Avenue. In the intersection, the Pontiac failed to stop for a posted stop sign, and collided with the Honda,” later reported PPB Public Information Officer Sgt Chris Burley.

Just after the collision, Burley confirmed, an occupant of the Pontiac “reportedly fired a gun into the air while leaving the crash scene with the other occupants of the Pontiac.”

At the intersection, officers find evidence of gunfire – but fortunately, no victims.

After canvassing the area, officers located evidence of gunfire near the crash, but found no injuries, or any property with damage. They searched the neighborhood, and did find one of the Pontiac’s occupants, but the others slipped away from the area. “The suspect that fired a gun has not been located at this time,” Burley remarked.

The occupants of the Honda did not report any injuries as a result of the crash or the subsequent shot.

Police don’t believe that 22-year-old Claude V. Poole, arrested on a Probation Violation charge near the scene, was the shooter – but he was taken to jail. MCDC booking photo

The one occupant of the Pontiac who was taken into custody nearby was identified as 22-year-old Claude V. Poole; he was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center at 10:32 p.m. that evening on a charge of Probation Violation, connected to a previous conviction of Burglary in the First Degree (Domestic Violence).

Poole was released from custody only four days later, on April 12. The given reason for release: Time Served on a Sentence.

Anyone with information about this shooting is asked to contact the Gang Enforcement Team at 503-823-4106

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