Posted on 01/26/2009 10:19:51 AM PST by Jack Black
PORTLAND, Ore. -- A man opened fire outside a downtown Portland nightclub Saturday night, killing two girls and wounding seven other people before shooting himself in the head, police said.
Gunfire erupted near the popular downtown bar Kells Irish Pub and the underage nightclub The Zone at about 10:30 p.m., according to the Portland Police Bureau. Police said nine people were shot on the sidewalks and streets outside the two establishments.
By the time police arrived, a teenage girl had already died, police said. A second teenage girl died after being taken to a Portland hospital.
The victims have been identified as 16-year-old Ashley Wilks, who attended Clackamas High School and planned to study abroad; and 17-year-old exchange student Marta Paz De Novoa, who was from Peru and had been staying with a family from White Salmon, Wash.
Both girls were part of a group of exchange students at The Zone to celebrate a birthday, said Chuck Itoh, chairman of the Rotary District 5100 exchange program.
An employee from Kells was one of seven other victims who were rushed to area hospitals Saturday night. By mid-morning Sunday, two had been released, three were in stable condition and two remained in critical condition, including 18-year-old Susy De Sousa, of Italy.
Portland officers said the suspect in the shooting, 24-year-old Erik Ayala, was taken to a hospital in critical condition. Ayala lives in Milwaukie. Detectives haven't been able to determine the motive and they said the shooting didn't appear to be gang-related.
There was a wedding reception on the upper level of Kells Irish Pub at the time the shooting took place. Witnesses described a chaotic scene with many people running and screaming.
"If I walked out any earlier, I could have been in the (gunfire), so that was pretty scary," said Rafael Dwan, who was at Kells on Saturday night.
There's no known connection between Ayala and the victims, according to officers. Most of the victims were between the ages of 16 and 21 years old.
"The ones we saw were young," Dwan said. "One of the managers was shot as well, apparently in the stomach."
Detectives said they recovered a gun used in the shooting at the scene.
Police Chief Rosie Sizer described the shooting as "unprecedented" in Portland.
"This shooting appears to be a random act of violence, of the kind that makes you despair for America," Sizer said.
Kells and The Zone are located near the intersection of Southwest 2nd Avenue and Pine Street. The immediate area includes several bars and typically attracts a large number of people on weekend nights.
Detective Mary Wheat said it didn't appear Ayala had been inside either place before the shooting.
I spend a fair amount of time in the establishment next door: Kell’s. There is no way I would let my 16 year old daughter go to “The Zone”, ever.
It may be semi-safe once you are inside, but 2nd street is nowhere to be hanging out on a weekend night. There have been a number of street shootings around these clubs at night. Usually they happen at 2:00 when the bars are closing. A homeless man sleeping in a doorway a few blocks from there was killed by a wild shot fired at the clubs.
My heart goes out to the victims. Yes, they were good kids and didn’t deserve this. I think the adults made a poor decision in choosing this venue to entertain them.
Funny how 'nutcases' never go into gun shops, cop bars, Mafia social clubs, biker bars, isn't it? Odd how street nutcases that supposedly can not take care of themselves never walk in front of buses, or stumble down onto commuter tracks and live outdoors in climates that would make a Seal Team survivalist die of pneumonia in a month?
Odd. All these people grift, er, drift though all the social service, food pantries, half way houses pretty damn fine.
Your right. I should have said that deterrents don’t work as well on nutcases as they do on the more rational evil folks out there.
1. Mr. Ayala apparently shot people pretty indiscriminately, and most likely very quickly; however, both of the dead were girls, which may be suggestive of something.
2. Mr. Ayala shot himself, which suggests that he may have been more interested in a "blaze of glory" type of suicide than anything else.
3. His roommate says that there were no indications of problems. He may be lying, but then again, perhaps Mr. Ayala was a quiet sort of loon.
4. He had a state job, but had worked at a temp agency for the past two years. This suggests that Mr. Ayala may have had "difficulties" of one sort or another.
I would not be surprised to learn that one of Mr. Ayala's temp jobs was either at or near the club in question; and that he either developed a crush on, or hatred for, somebody who worked there.
Folks, these types of incidents are going to be commonplace during the Obama regime. Remember the rash of school shootings that happened in Clinton’s 2nd term? It’s the demoralization of our nation and general breakdown in ethics that comes from the top. People see this and get emboldened to commit these heinous crimes.
By using media DOUBLESPEAK and INVERTED SPIN techniques, you can, via deductive and inductive reasoning, probably infer the real story.
“no gangs were suspected” = truth, or “gangs or affliates of gangs were involved”
No national news about the Mayor Sam Adams(D) and his underage gay sex scandal.
The media is garbage.
RIP.
They have released his suicide note. (Which says nothing, it’s a note to his roomate on where to sell the video game.)
Still no reporting on his immigration status or that of his parents.
I’m starting to smell ‘coverup’. My comments on the OregonLive blog were censored.
You know the Oregonian has issues because they have to censor all their blogs. Ever post is vetted. Funny.
Can’t let the serfs know what each other are thinking.
They did allow relatively free comments on the Adams thing - for about 4 hours, then shut that down altogether.
Pathetic. Portland won’t get fixed until we have better press.
“Pathetic. Portland won’t get fixed until we have better press”
Nothing will get fixed until we have a better press. They are enemy #1!
***Nothing will get fixed until we have a better press. They are enemy #1!***
America’s Fourth Estate is the Fifth Column.
There’s an underage club down there.
Speaking of underage, anybody spot The Mayor down there? He likes his boys on the young side.
Yes, he’s a democrat. Yes, he’s gay. Yes, he’s not leaving office any time soon.
The Most Ethical Party in the World - The Democrats.
I guess the only thing you don’t want to be caught with any more is the dead girl. Live boys are now officially OK by the democrats.
Unfortunately true.
“I’m starting to smell ‘coverup’. My comments on the OregonLive blog were censored.”
Jack, the details of this will be covered by Lars Larson out of Portland today, I’m sure. I will try to catch his show to see what’s up. It comes on noon pacific time.
You can listen live.
The truth is the enemy of the domestic and international media.
It was only last week I was arguing with another Freeper that the Washington state prohibition on non-citizens owning guns is not a bad law.
I'm sure we'll hear a lot more about banning guns than about ending the import of angry Mexican criminals.
White Salmon is well over a one hour drive from that part of Portland; and on a school night. That part of Portland is not a place to be at night.
The Rotary organization can expect to be sued and pay out a ton of money. Totally irresponsible of them to sponser this party.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.