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Two people were killed and many injured early Tuesday morning in the Madison South neighborhood of northeast Portland.
The deaths would mark the 57th and 58th homicides this year in Portland, which topped the number of homicides for all of 2020. Portland last year recorded its highest number of homicides in more than a quarter of century.
Shortly before 5:30 a.m., several people called 911 about shots fired in the 3600 block of 82nd Avenue Northeast.
Investigators appeared to be focusing their efforts on a residential area east of 82nd on Northeast Milton Street.
Several homicide detectives interviewed witnesses and gathered evidence near 82nd and Milton, where an RV was parked near a fenced lot.
Lt. Greg Pashley confirmed that two people had died. Three other victims were taken to hospital, police later confirmed. No suspects have been identified and no arrests have been made, Pashley said.
According to a source close to the investigation, a total of five people were shot dead. In addition to the two deaths, one person could be in critical condition in hospital.
A man was seen handcuffed by police at the scene around 8:30 a.m.
“If confirmed to be homicides it will be 58 people lost in the city (in 2021),” Pashley said. “Fifty-eight lives lost, hundreds injured; this city is really suffering.
Dan Berryman, a clinical supervisor at Integrated Health Clinics Northeast, said he was familiar with the sounds of gunfire coming from his service in the military. He heard at least 20 shots of what he said sounding like a semi-automatic handgun on the street outside the clinic where he works at 82nd and Milton.
He got out before retreating when he heard five or six more shots of what he said sounding like a shotgun. He quickly moved patients to the center of the clinic, away from the windows, as chaos ensued outside.
“There was a lot of screaming and screaming and crying,” he said. “It looked like a war zone.”
Josh Quiding, 47, lives near Northeast 85th Avenue and Northeast Fremont. He was sleeping just before 5:30 a.m. when he heard gunshots through an open window.
“It started slowly. Two or three pops, ”he said. “Then it was an open fire with different calibers and a few shots from a shotgun.”
Quiding said he heard one of the bullets whistle outside his house and land in his backyard.
“It’s scary,” he said. “My 5 year old son lives in Pendleton and I have to ask myself ‘Do I want to bring him here with this?'”
Quiding, who shares a house with his father, said he grew up in Portland but is considering moving.
“You hear gunshots almost every night,” he said. “We are trying to get out of the neighborhood.
A section of the 82nd between Northeast Fremont Street and Sandy Boulevard will be closed for several hours, police said.
Northbound and southerly traffic diverted from 82nd may use 57th Avenue Northeast and Boulevard Cully to bypass the closure or use Interstate 205.
Portland has seen more than 730 shootings, injuring 237 people this year, or on average nearly one person a day with gunshot wounds, according to the Enhanced Community Safety Team, the Portland Police Bureau investigative team focused on shootings.
Over the past six weeks, an average of 30 shootings have taken place each week, police said.
A man was fatally shot on a TriMet bus in southeast Portland near 26th Avenue and Hawthorne Boulevard early Sunday night, police said. The incident occurred a day after a man was found dead after what appeared to be a shooting near Gilbert Heights Elementary School in the Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood.
Portland is on track to break its previous record of 70 homicides, set in 1987.
–Oregonian / OregonLive
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