Posted on 05/30/2015 1:07:46 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Turon Lamont Walker is accused of shooting three people after someone "eyed" him at the Last Thursday street fair on Thursday, May 28, 2015.
Sgt. Don Livingston, a supervisor of the city's gang enforcement team, and his investigators were still busy gathering police reports and examining evidence from last week's shootings when bullets scattered the crowd and wounded three people at the jampacked Last Thursday street fair in Northeast Portland.
"We're playing catch-up here," Livingston said in the aftermath of the latest violence. "They're coming in so fast."
The shooting Thursday night pushed gang violence response calls to 64 this year for Portland police, up from 50 during the same period a year ago -- with summer just around the corner.
It was particularly galling to city leaders and residents because police and witnesses say the shots were fired by a 16-year-old boy toward a bustling Northeast Alberta Street corner, where at least 1,000 people were out and enjoying the sunny, warm early evening.
The gunfire started over something as minor as one teen thinking he was disrespected by another, police and prosecutors said.
Once in custody, accused shooter Turon Lamont Walker Jr. of Vancouver told police he took aim at someone after he thought the person was "eying him," a probable cause affidavit says.
"My heart goes out to the families and everyone involved," Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury said Friday afternoon. "It's incumbent upon our entire community to redouble our efforts and make sure this doesn't happen again.''
Police and probation officers aren't quite sure what's fueling this year's increase in shootings. But they have noticed that 15- to 25-year-olds who have access to guns are now carrying them -- not stashing them at home, in a car or under a bush.
That means the slightest problem can erupt into deadly violence in an instant as witnessed at the popular Northeast Portland festival or earlier this month at a shooting outside the Cinco de Mayo festival along the downtown waterfront.
"People are being more emboldened. They're carrying their firearms on their person, using it for their own protection and using it to gain their stripes, strengthen their reputations with a gang," said Erika Preuitt, district manager for Multnomah County's adult probation division. "And they're young people who are irresponsible and not thinking it through."
Some police officers privately suspect that gang members are less anxious about carrying guns because police have taken a less aggressive approach to stopping and searching suspicious people in the wake of a scathing U.S. Department of Justice investigation into Portland police use of force and amid the national furor over high-profile police shootings in Ferguson, Baltimore and Cleveland.
"In light of the DOJ settlement, yes, we've directed officers to be really thoughtful on the reasonableness and subtext of their interactions with people," said Dana Haynes, spokesman for Mayor Charlie Hales. But Haynes has no idea if that's a factor contributing to more gang violence, he said.
For the short-term, the latest brazen shooting is spurring Multnomah County probation and parole officers to do more night work, visit gang offenders on supervision and increase coordination with police. They're also scheduling group sessions with gang members to remind them of the consequences if they violate their conditions.
This weekend, parole and probation officers who supervise gang offenders and county officers who work with high-risk youths plan to be highly visible with police to keep a close watch on their people and monitor hot spots, Preuitt said.
Livingston said he hasn't heard of any efforts to add more officers to the 25-member gang enforcement team. Police Bureau spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson said only that commanders of the tactical operations division "will be discussing options moving forward, based on available resources.''
The county chairwoman and the mayor's spokesman each pointed to money set aside in their budgets to support early intervention with at-risk youths, recreation programs for kids, summer internships and outreach programs as the steps they believe will help curb the violence in the long-term.
"It's not going to be by putting more officers on the streets," Haynes said. "The mayor doesn't believe that is the right response."
Because the city didn't officially sanction this month's Last Thursday gathering, there was a much smaller number of police officers and probation officers assigned to the Alberta Street event this week. When the "shots fired" call came in, Portland police had a gang enforcement detail outside the Helensview School graduation miles away.
"Last Thursday was neither the cause nor the villain. Last Thursday is not why we had another shooting," Haynes said.
Police credited community members with helping officers nab the suspected gunman so quickly.
Resident Andrew Almeter, who works as a contractor, was outside his home loading his parked truck on Northeast Wygant Street when he heard about five shots. They sounded extremely close, he said.
"My heart sank,'' he said.
He suddenly noticed, among all the people who were out walking or milling around for Last Thursday, "a guy running full speed with his hood up.'' Almeter instinctively pulled out his cellphone and started filming the teen as he raced after him, east on Wygant, then south on 21st Avenue toward Going Street.
When Almeter reached Going, he looked back and noticed several Portland police officers running behind him. "I was yelling 'Cut him off, 22nd and Prescott! '' Almeter recalled as he saw the young man head east on Going and south on 22nd.
The suspect had thrown a black semi-automatic handgun up in the air as he fled the shooting scene. Police recovered the gun, and it matched the caliber of a shell casing found on 20th Avenue, just south of Alberta.
Perry Eising, who lives on 20th Avenue across the street from where the shooter was firing, heard four to five shots that sounded "very, very close.'' Eising said the shooter was outside a business called Brides for a Cause, firing northwest toward the corner of 20th and Alberta.
Eising ran out and saw a woman wounded in the arm on the sidewalk at the corner. Several people were tending to her, and Eising brought out some rubber gloves and towels to help.
Walker was arraigned in juvenile court Friday on three counts each of attempted murder and unlawful use of a firearm. He will be prosecuted as an adult on the Measure 11 offenses.
He said he was sorry to his family as several supporters sobbed in the court gallery. He also wrote an apology letter to the two 15-year-old boys and 25-year-old woman who were wounded.
Police identified them as Damon Terrell Knighten, 15, Nayuntre Latrell Hurd, 15, and Ashley Quinae Perry, 25. They were all released from the hospital Friday.
"It's really, really telling when violence erupts in a way where there were a lot of people on that corner and that person shot from very far way,'' Eising said. "Fortunately nobody was killed.''
Until I read to the end of the sentence, I thought it was about Baltimore.
Baltimore, Portland, Des Moines, Bangor or Memphis. What’s the difference?
That's why we are still waiting for you. :-)
I didn't know Bangor, Maine was bad. Third boxcar, midnight train, destination, Bangor, Maine.
War has been declared against civilization.
BTW, you are up late. It is 4:30 PM, Saturday afternoon here.
I was just throwing out random US city names. With Obola shifting illegals, gang members, paid disruptors and his militia from place to place, there are no safe havens these days.
I took a nap earlier so my batteries are charged. Fighting a bad wound on my left heel.
Good grief! Nayuntre? What kind of name is that?
Guess that’s not California!
The shooter wrote a letter of apology to the three people he shot, what more do people want? /s
Give him space to destroy?
But then, he’d have to move to Baltimore.
Kapalong.
Oregon just enacted more GUN CONTROL, crime should be going down, not up.
In cursive?
How about the one who’s mother was Liza and dad was Ferd. When the little nappy was born they named him Ferdaliza.
No phone, no pool, no pets
I ain’t got no cigarettes
Yep, that too.
Need to move to someplace safer,...like Tijuana or Laredo.
The Scrabbles shooting each other.
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