Surveillance footage shared with The Oregonian/OregonLive shows three people on foot appearing to shoot repeatedly at a light-colored sedan in which police found three people dead Saturday.
The footage is the first hint of what led to Portland’s deadliest shooting of 2023 so far.
The shooting happened around 12:30 a.m. on North Foss Avenue in the Portsmouth neighborhood of North Portland, near University Park, the Charles Jordan Community Center and Rosa Parks Elementary School.
Doorbell camera footage shows three people walking on the sidewalk with their hands in their pockets in broad daylight as a car drives by. When a light-colored sedan drives by, the three pedestrians—it’s not clear how old they are or whether they are men or women—start shooting. They run after the car, still firing.
The sedan then crashes into a parked SUV and spins to a stop as the three people appear to continue shooting. It is not clear from the footage what happened next or if anyone inside the car responded. The sedan slides back out of frame and the footage doesn’t capture where the three shooters are going. The footage recorded the sound of about three dozen gunshots.
Hours after the shooting, a light-colored Kia sedan still sat in the middle of the street cordoned off by red police tape. Next to it was a Jeep with front end damage.
Not since June 2021, when four people died in a single incident, has gun violence in Portland claimed so many lives at once. Police Chief Chuck Lovell, in a statement Saturday, called the latest deaths a “shocking incident.”
“This shooting in broad daylight in a residential neighborhood is another tragic example of how gun violence can terribly affect our community,” he said.
As of Saturday, police said they had not made any arrests.
The slayings were the 15th, 16th and 17th suspected homicides in Portland so far in 2023. Through this time last year, Portland had recorded 24 homicides on its way to a record 101 in 2022.
On Sunday, a makeshift memorial of flowers, balloons and a cross made of sticks decorated the base of a tree on North Foss Avenue. Debris from the accident still littered the road.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to contact Detective Jason Koenig at Jason.Koenig@police.portlandoregon.gov or 503-823-0889 or Detective William Winters at William.Winters@police.portlandoregon. gov or 503-823-0466, with case number 23-77440.
– Austin Of God; adedios@oregonian.com; @austindedios; 503-319-9744
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