PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Two Portland police officers were identified after an officer-involved shooting killed a person during a disturbance in the Southwest Hills Saturday evening, PPB officials said.
Around 6:45 p.m. shots were being fired as police arrived in the 900 block of SW Broadway Drive, PPB Lt. Nathan Sheppard said. Officer set up a perimeter around the apartment where witnesses told police the shooter was.
In a Sunday afternoon press conference over Zoom, Sheppard said there were “a number of witnesses who directed officers to where the shooter was,” but said he did not have enough information at this time to say who was killed.
Sunday evening, the officers were publicly identified as Acting Sergeant Zachary Kenney and Officer Reynaldo Guevara. Kenney is a 17-year veteran and Guevara joined PPB in January 2020.
He added that the entire incident started off with a separate disturbance, but did not elaborate on what the other disturbance was or how it may have escalated.
“It took a while to progress,” Sheppard said, before the officer or officers opened fire.
No officers were hurt, he said.
There was a shelter-in-place order during the police response, but that was lifted late Saturday night.
Sheppard said he believes the current 2022 homicide total in Portland is 15, with 14 of those by gunfire. Overall there have been 203 shooting incidents so far, with 50 people wounded.
The escalating gun violence, he said, “is challenging for the City of Portland.”
This was the second press conference PPB held Sunday about the Saturday shootings, including the one at Normandale Park that began as an confrontation between an armed homeowner and armed protesters. But the first press conference, held outside in downtown Portland, was hijacked by protesters who took over the microphone to shout wild conspiracy theories about PPB that included references to the Gypsy Jokers, Andy Ngo and John Dillinger.
Sheppard walked away from that event minutes after it began.
In a statement Sunday afternoon, Multnomah County DA Mike Schmidt said the weekend shootings “spanned our neighborhoods from East to West.” He also thanked “the people on the front lines” for responding to the shootings and noted it “takes an incredible toll” on first responders.
“As I and everyone in my office work diligently to review the facts and evidence of each shooting, issue charges, and prosecute, we hold two infallible truths closest to our hearts: victims deserve justice and harm cannot and will not go unaccounted for.”