PORTLAND, Ore. — Detectives with the Portland Police Bureau Gun Violence Reduction Team are investigating seven separate shooting incidents reported between Friday night and Sunday morning.
The seven shootings aren't connected, police said.
Police said shots were fired into two apartments at Hazel Heights, an affordable housing complex in the Hazelwood neighborhood, including inside a child's bedroom, shortly after 8 p.m. Friday. The target of the shooters was a vehicle parked in the parking lot of the apartment building located on Southeast 126th Avenue and Stark Street, police said.
The child's room was unoccupied at the time of the shooting and nobody was injured.
KGW spoke with a woman who lives in one of the two units hit; she doesn't want her name publicized but says a bullet went through her window and multiple others hit the wall of her kids' room but didn't go through the wall. She's grateful she and her kids weren't home at the time of the shooting Friday.
"I think it's absolutely ridiculous they had no care about anything," she said. "If you've got a problem with somebody, think about all the kids playing around here."
She is now moving across the complex.
"Two days later we're moving - that's awesome. I told them we were scared and didn't want to be there no more and they had one available so they moved us, which is awesome, I'm very excited."
Bryan Sotomish has lived at Hazel Heights since February. He has kids of his own and doesn't feel safe there anymore.
"It's happened numerous times here. It never gets reported on," Sotomish told KGW. "I want out, I definitely want out, it's not safe."
There was a second shooting Friday night, in the Lloyd District near Northeast Broadway Street and 8th Avenue. That shooting happened around 9:45 p.m. Police say the suspect or suspects fled the scene before officers arrived. Shortly after the shooting was reported, a shooting victim arrived at a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police said more than one firearm was used in this shooting, and an unoccupied vehicle, a parking meter and a building were all hit by bullets.
Four additional shootings took place between 9:15 p.m. Saturday and 1 a.m. Sunday.
There was one person injured in Sunday's shootings. A man suffered minor injuries when he was shot at while driving through North Columbia Way and North Macrum Avenue in the St. Johns neighborhood at about 9:45 p.m. Police say a bullet grazed his head but he is now out of the hospital recovering.
The other shootings took place Saturday night and Sunday morning in the following locations:
- 9:15 p.m. — at Southeast 72nd Avenue and Duke Street in the Brentwood-Darlington neighborhood. A man was in his parked car when he heard gun shots. His car was hit multiple times, but he wasn't injured.
- 11:15 p.m. — at the 6400 block of Northeast Columbia Boulevard in the Cully neighborhood. Someone was walking when they saw evidence of gunfire; officers don't know when shots were fired but it could have been on another day.
- 11:30 p.m. — at Northeast 130th Place and Prescott Drive in the Argay Terrace neighborhood. An officer saw a suspect leaving the scene of this shooting. When the officer tried to stop the suspect, the suspect ran and officers were unsuccessful in a subsequent search. Evidence of gunfire at the scene and bullet strikes at a nearby townhouse were found. KGW spoke with a young woman who lives in that townhouse and said she came home about five minutes after the shooting.
- 1 a.m. — at North Interstate Avenue and North Denver Avenue in the Kenton neighborhood. Police said a suspect fired into the air after an argument with a couple. No one was hurt.
Portland Police Bureau Public Information Officer Sgt. Kevin Allen says five shootings in one day is a lot for the agency and they are very concerned.
"But we definitely don't want people to think this is necessarily an uptick in shooting activity. It's just, we think, a coincidence. These shootings happened in different areas of town at different times and we don't think one person is responsible or one group," Sgt. Allen said.
It is unusual to have this many shootings reported in a concentrated time frame in the city, Allen says. However, gun violence in Portland is not unusual.
"As unfortunate as it is, gun violence is present in the city of Portland. But it is unusual to see this many over the course of two nights. It's not what we want to see, it's what we are working to prevent as best we can," Allen said. "What I don't want people to think is that there's any increase in danger in Portland... We have reason to think at least some of them were targeted specifically."
The bureau's Gun Violence Reduction Team has responded to about 360 incidents involving guns so far this year. Allen says that statistic is a bit misleading; some incidents involved accidental discharges or suicides.
If anyone has information about Friday's shooting in the Hazelwood neighborhood, they're asked to contact Det. Jennifer Hertzler at 503-823-1040 or jennifer.hertzler@portlandoregon.gov or Det. Ryan Foote at 503-823-0781 or ryan.foote@portlandoregon.gov.
If anyone has information about Friday's shooting in the Lloyd District, please contact Det. Brent Christensen at 503-823-2087 or brent.christensen@portlandoregon.gov or Det. Bryan DeClercque at 503-823-2056 or bryan.declercque@portlandoregon.gov.
If anyone has information about any of the Saturday night and Sunday morning shootings, please contact Portland police at 503-823-4106 or guntaskforce@portlandoregon.gov.