PORTLAND, Ore. – There have been five shootings in a span of five days across Portland. One man is dead, several others injured, but at this point, no one has been arrested.
The locations of the shootings span from downtown Portland to the Gresham border, which means police cannot simply ramp up patrols in one spot to help prevent another shooting. The gun violence is keeping investigators busy.
“Yeah, in the past few weeks there's been a lot of gun violence we've responded to, the incidents have really been all over the place, too, so it's not just one particular location or theme,” explained Portland Police Bureau Sergeant Pete Simpson.
The first shooting happened Monday, October 15 around 9:30 p.m. near Northeast 130th Place and Prescott Drive in the city's Argay neighborhood. Officers said one person was shot and suffered life-threatening injuries.
The second happened Tuesday, around 7:15 p.m. when officers responded to a call of shots fired in Dawson Park on North Williams Avenue. Police found evidence of a shooting, but no victim or suspect. A short time later a man showed up in the emergency room with life-threatening gunshot wounds.
Friday morning, just before 10 a.m., officers responded to a shooting in the parking lot of an auto repair shop at North Rosa Parks and Albina. The victim later died at the hospital.
Then that same day, around 7:30 p.m., police got a call about gunshots near Bloomington Park, at Southeast 101st and Steele Street. Fifteen minutes later, someone showed up at the hospital with serious gunshot injuries.
Fast forward to 2:00 a.m. Saturday, police were called to a shooting at Lucky Corner Restaurant on Southeast Powell Boulevard. Police said this one started as a bar fight and ended in a shooting. The gunshot victim was expected to survive.
No one has been arrested in any of these cases.
“There are a lot of different reasons for the shootings, some that may be gang related. There's always a concern about kind of a tit-for-tat back-and-forth cycle that you're in," Simpson said "Others don't appear to be related to that at all. And just part of it may be the prevalence of firearms in the community."
With so many shootings in one week, it appears gun violence is on the rise in Portland. However, officers said shootings like this come and go in waves.
“Over a year's time, it may be the numbers balance out and what we see typically is peaks and valleys when it comes to shootings. And right now we're in one of those peaks where it's very busy,” Simpson said.
Police also said a key piece to preventing shootings is keeping guns out of the hands of people who legally are not supposed to have them, like convicted felons, juveniles, and people convicted of domestic violence. If you know anyone that fits that criteria and has a gun, police want you to report it.
Portland police are also asking anyone with information about any of the shootings to come forward. You can make a report anonymously via Crimestoppers. or call 503-823-HELP (4357)