PORTLAND, Ore. — Police have identified a woman who was fatally shot early Sunday morning in Portland's Cathedral Park neighborhood. Her vehicle, the Portland Police Bureau said Tuesday, was found burned miles away in Northeast Portland later that morning.
The homicide marked the 60th in Portland this year and the 51st fatal shooting in the city.
Calls started coming in about gunfire in Cathedral Park before 5 a.m. on Sunday. PPB said that officers arrived at 5:15 a.m., but did not find a victim or evidence of a shooting. A little over 20 minutes later, a passerby reported finding someone who had been shot.
According to the agency, investigators learned that Tyrae Hernandez, 30, was discovered shot in a parking lot near North Crawford Street and North Alta Avenue by a family member who had gone out looking for her.
"Detectives have since learned this area is a popular place for groups of people to gather," Portland police said in a statement.
The family member tried to help Hernandez, but she died at the scene. The county medical examiner later confirmed that her death was a homicide by gunshot wound.
Police learned that Hernandez's car was missing from the scene of the shooting. It turned up at 7:30 a.m. that morning, found burned along Northeast Marine Drive just west of McGuire Point Marina.
Any suspects in the shooting were gone by the time officers arrived and no arrests have been made, police said.
In a press briefing Monday morning, Portland Police Chief Bob Day addressed the fatal shooting and a MAX train crash that killed two teens over the weekend, saying that he didn't want the loss of life to go unremarked.
"Last year I believe we had about 96 (homicides) ... So, you know, we want to be able to recognize that we're trending in the right direction but I don't take any loss of life lightly," Day said. "I don't want us to be in a celebratory mode that the numbers are coming down when we still are seeing people dying to homicidal violence."
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact Detective Mike Schmerber at 503-823-0991 or email Michael.Schmerber@police.portlandoregon.gov. Detective Erik Kammerer at 503-823-0762 or email Erik.Kammerer@police.portlandoregon.gov and reference case number 23-288810.
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