PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) – Portland police are investigating another shooting that occurred in the Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood Tuesday evening.
East Precinct officers were called out to a shooting in the 4300 block of Southeast 122nd Avenue at about 9:11 p.m.
Officers arrived to the scene and found evidence of gunfire. Police said officers learned about three victims who walked into area hospitals with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds.
According to police, one man was shot five times – once in the wrist, once in the shoulder and three times in the foot.
The second victim, a man, was shot once in the ankle. The third victim, another man, was shot once in the buttocks.
At the scene, officers found seven vehicles, two occupied homes and one occupied mobile home that were struck by gunfire. Police said a bullet entered into a living room where a young child had been five minutes before the shooting.
No arrests have been made, according to police.
Powellhurst-Gilbert remains in third place in gunfire rankings, still well behind the benchmark Hazelwood neighborhood and just a nose behind perpetual contender Centennial. Fantasy league players take note.
PORTLAND, Ore. — A deeper look at where shootings are happening in Portland showed three neighborhoods in east Portland saw a significantly higher number of shootings than other neighborhoods in 2020.
Of the 893 shootings reported last year, police data showed 79 of them happened in the Hazelwood neighborhood, 60 in the Centennial neighborhood, and 58 in the Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood—by far the three highest areas and more than double what each neighborhood saw in 2019…
Ted Wheeler has tried bringing back the gang/gun unit but that’s off the table
…city’s decision last summer to disband the bureau’s gun violence reduction team, a decision Wheeler said Tuesday he did not regret.
The police union and some officers on the old unit have said disbanding the unit put the bureau in a bad spot. The unit focused on patrolling high violence areas and investigated all the gun crimes in the city.
The changes Wheeler outlined appear to reinstate at least a portion of what the gun violence reduction team did, but the patrol aspect of the unit that focused on proactive patrols and traffic stops is not back.
Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty led the push to get rid of the unit over concerns of racial discrimination after a 2018 city audit found the unit stopped black people in 59% of its stops.
“Just stopping and searching people has not led to a decrease in gun violence or gang violence or other violence in our community,” Hardesty said.
Or did it? Police reported 893 shootings in 2020, more than double what the city saw in 2019, and just over 70% of last year’s shootings happened after city leaders disbanded the team.
Officers on the unit have rejected accusations they stopped people based on skin color.
KATU asked Wheeler if the city needed a unit focused specifically on gun crimes.
It already has that, just to be clear. The chief deployed, I believe it is a sergeant and 7 officers, who are specifically tasked with addressing gun violence from a law enforcement perspective — and that includes enhancing investigative capacity,” Wheeler said…
Residents of the affected neighborhoods can expect little relief; Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, leader of the police abolition movement says they’re going to be just fine
Community members have said the law enforcement presence has plummeted over the last 6 months in some affected neighborhoods, but Hardesty said the bureau has the resources to send officers where they’re needed.
She and the mayor pointed to increases in violence in other cities across America and disputed it’s related to the city’s decision to get rid of the unit.
Other cities, all sharing something in common..
A record 192 people have been killed in [Milwaukie] as of Wednesday – up 96% compared to the 98 murders reported for the same time last year, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel...
In Minneapolis, 81 people have been killed year to date as of Dec. 30, an increase of 72%…
Philadelphia has reportedly seen 490 murders so far this year – nearing but not reaching the record number of 504 murders from 1990.
And in Seattle, there have been 47 murders to date – 19 more than in all of 2019 and the highest homicide statistic for all the years available on the police department’s Crime Dashboard, which goes back as far as 2008. The second-highest number of murders was reported in 2018, with 32 homicides.
PORTLAND, Ore. — A Multnomah County judge has found a man who was accused of murder and attempted murder unfit to stand trial and has dismissed all charges against him, according to court documents.
Demetruis Ray Brown, 26, was accused in the June 2013 shooting and killing of 21-year-old Andreas Prince. He was also accused of being involved in an August 2014 shooting that left a 21-year-old pregnant woman, Ervaeua Herring, dead. Additionally, he faced a charge of attempted murder for shooting a man five times in May 2012 during a robbery.
Some things are still illegal (we’re not lawless!)
PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) – A 57-year-old man was arrested Monday afternoon after he harassed multiple people on a Portland Streetcar and repeatedly called an officer a racial slur, according to court documents.
Steven James Betz is facing two counts of second-degree bias crime, second-degree disorderly conduct, second-degree criminal trespass, and interfering with public transportation.
The charges stem from an investigation that began at about 12:20 p.m. on Monday when officers responded to the area of 250 Southeast Tilikum Way.
Court documents state that Betz was harassing multiple streetcar operators by yelling at them, as well as yelling a riders. Betz also banged on an operator’s window several times.
Officers arrived to the scene and found Betz sitting on a bench at the streetcar stop. The officers told Betz it was time to leave, but he refused.
Two officers held on to each side of Betz and escorted him away so that he would not fall over. Betz then turned his attention to one of the officers who is African American, according to court documents.
Court documents state that the victim asked Betz whether he understood that he trespassed and Betz turned towards the victim, clenched his fist and said “shut up n-word.”
According to court documents, Betz threatened to shoot the victim while using hand gestures multiples times and continued to call the victim a “stupid n-word.” Betz also clinched his fists and charged at the victim several times, court documents state.
The victim reportedly put up his hands to create distance between himself and Betz, according to court documents. Other officers helped Betz walk away and told him to leave. He then quickly walked back to the streetcar stop and sat down on a bench.
Additional officers responded to the scene and took Betz into custody. Court documents state that Betz continued to focus on the victim and called him the “n-word” again.
Betz was booked into the Multnomah County Jail. He was released the following day on his own recognizance.
untethered 