PORTLAND, Ore. — At least five bullets sailed into someone's home and injured their shoulder while they were asleep, according to the Portland Police Bureau (PPB).
On Saturday, Oct. 30 at around 1:45 a.m., officers responded to a home in the 13000 block of SE Powell Boulevard because someone had been shot. Police found a man with a minor shoulder wound. He had been asleep when bullets went through the wall of his home and into the headboard of his bed. Bullets also hit his car.
His shoulder was just slightly grazed but police said that if the bullet had a slightly different trajectory it could have been a life-threatening situation.
Matthew Harris was in his bedroom next door reading a book when the shooting took place.
"All the sudden I heard bap, bap, bap, bap, bap like nine shots go off, a whole clip. You hear it off in the distance, but this was pretty close, it was scary," said Harris.
While people were trying to make sense of what happened in the Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood Saturday morning, Multnomah County leaders including Sheriff Mike Reese used a virtual town hall meeting Saturday afternoon to discuss gun violence.
"Unfortunately the gun violence is eroding away the sense of safety and security in many of our neighborhoods," said Reese.
While officials look for answers to the spike in gun violence in Portland, people living through it such as Harris believe they have to look out for themselves.
"It does worry me a lot, so I just hope everybody watches out for themselves and their children," Harris said.
Police said they believe the bullets were fired from a car or cars on SE Powell Boulevard and SE 132nd Avenue. The bullets allegedly traveled a full block before hitting the man's home. Police don't believe he was the intended target of the shooting. No suspects have been located.
PPB is asking anyone with any information about this case to please email crimetips@portlandoregon.gov attention: ECST and reference case number 21-303573. It is also asking for people with surveillance video on SE Powell to review their footage from Saturday between 1:30 a.m.-1:45 a.m.
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Anonymous tips can be sent through Crime Stoppers. Crime Stoppers of Oregon offers cash rewards of up to $2,500 cash for information, reported to Crime Stoppers, that leads to an arrest in any unsolved felony crime and tipsters can remain anonymous.