Second deadly shooting in a week
The weather is mild, but relatively dry and all ready crime seems to be picking up in North Portland. Yesterday's homicide represents the second such shooting in New Columbia, the state's largest public housing community, and the second homicide in recent weeks. Police worry that there may be a connection.
FROM THE OREGONIAN
A teenage boy died in gunfire across from the Boys & Girls Club's New Columbia location in North Portland tonight, the Portland Police Bureau reported.
Officers arrived about 7:30 p.m. and found the boy, whose name was not released, lying in the 8900 block of North Woolsey Avenue, said Detective Mary Wheat, a bureau spokeswoman.
Police Chief Mike Reese and Portland Mayor Sam Adams, responding in his role as police commissioner, responded to the scene and attended a debriefing in a grassy area across from the Boys & Girls Club and near Rosa Parks Elementary School.
Reese said he was worried that this and two other recent shootings in North Portland might represent a disturbing trend.
"I'm very concerned about our second shooting in New Columbia in a week and our second homicide in a week," Reese said.
Police found 40-year-old Decoal Crawford lying dead on the sidewalk at North Albina Avenue and Jessup Street late Friday. Last Wednesday, Reese said officers responded to the shooting of a 16-year-old boy near the area of tonight's shooting.
"Something's going on, so we've got to find out what," Reese said.
Wheat concurred, saying that officers would work with neighborhood residents to help quell any outbreaks of violence with school getting out and the thermometer starting to inch up.
"Obviously any time we have shootings like this we're going to be concerned," Wheat said. "We'll do whatever we can to work with the community to try to stop any additional violence over the summer."
Crowds gathered and talked outside yellow crime-scene tape that wrapped blocks around where the teenager died.
Wheat said that homicide detectives would remain at the scene throughout the night. A mobile command center was parked near the scene.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call Portland Detective Molly Daul at 503-823-0991.