10:06 AM PDT on Saturday, August 13, 2005

By JIM PARKER, kgw.com Staff

In the wake of six downtown shootings, Portland officials have promised to blanket the city's entertainment core with officers on bike, foot and horseback to ease the public's fear.

KGW photo

A Portland police officer takes up a position after arriving at the scene of a shooting at 3rd and Alder streets downtown.

Also, club owners have been asked to stagger their closing times so that large groups of young adults do not emerge onto downtown streets at the same time.

Most of the shootings have been tied to local gangs, said Police Chief Derrick Foxworth.

Investigators say some of the music played by the nightclubs in downtown Portland appear to be drawing more gang members recently. That may be a result of other nightclubs in other parts of the city closing. "There's a displacement issue," said Portland Police Officer John Laws.

In the past four months, there have been six downtown shootings in which two people have died from gunshot wounds.

In the most recent case, one or two shots were fired Thursday night about 11 p.m. at SW 3rd and Alder, said police, who indicated no one was hurt. A bullet casing was found at the scene on Alder and what appeared to be a bullet hole was visible in a tree.

Witnesses told police that a group of men were arguing when one of them pulled out a gun and fired into the air; the group quickly scattered amidst the gunshots.

"I'm almost 20 feet from the spot (of the shooting), I was just going to walk by and a gunshot went off," witness Jack Connoly told KGW. "I turned around and ran away and within 2 minutes, all the cop cars were here. They were here really fast."

Police arrested and released an intoxicated man found hiding in a nearby parking garage, although they were unsure whether he was the shooter. He was not charged with any crime related to the shooting. No gun was found and police had no other suspects, officers said.

Earlier Thursday, Portland Police Chief Derrick Foxworth and Mayor Tom Potter promised to have more police presence in the downtown area and increased security measures designed to reduce gang violence.

Foxworth and Potter said at least two dozen Portland officers will patrol the district on foot, bike and horseback on weekend nights.

"When people come to downtown Portland this weekend, they’re going to see police officers on horseback , on bikes, walking, in cars, patrolling the streets… there will be a very distinct police presence," Potter said.

Most of the downtown shootings have occurred during weekend late night hours, around closing time for many nightclubs. All of the shootings have happened outside, none were inside clubs.

“I used to think this was a pretty safe place to be. I still do, but at night, that’s changed,” said Skip Klarkquist, who works in the downtown area.

(KGW reporter Scott Burton and the AP contributed to this report.)