PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Two people accused of violent crimes over the weekend in Portland made their first court appearances Monday on murder and carjacking charges.
Anthony Millner was booked into the Multnomah County Jail over the weekend for 2nd-degree murder. He’s accused of killing a person whose body was found near NW 2nd Avenue on Saturday.
Joseph Rand allegedly shot a woman and carjacked someone at gunpoint near Luuwit View Park. The 35-year-old was arrested after crashing into a fence.
Anne Schmidt, who lives near where the shooting and carjacking took place, told KOIN 6 News crime is getting worse in Portland. In fact, she said her home was shot recently in a separate incident.
“They shot my house here. Nine bullet holes in the bedroom. That was a few months ago,” Schmidt said. “Fortunately no one was in the bedroom in the time. We were watching television. They just came out of the park and just bop bop bop bop bop.”
Police said 92 people have been injured in 288 shooting in Portland so far this year. To date, there have been 26 homicides, 18 of which were shootings. That’s more homicides than Portland has seen in many different years.
City Commissioners recently directed police to form a new Focused Intervention Team to prevent shootings but didn’t give them any funding to do that.
Asked how they were going to be able to make that happen, police officials said, “Without money to pay for it, the 12 officers and 2 sergeants will come from elsewhere in the Police Bureau, reducing the amount of work done in whatever areas those positions are pulled from. Exactly where those positions will come from is still under discussion.”
Schmidt, who said she’s lived in the area for 60 years, said she raised 12 kids in the neighborhood.
“We left bicycles off when they were young. We didn’t have to worry about anything. Things sure have changed,” she said.
Specifically crimes has gotten worse over the summer months, “and now people feel free to do whatever they want.”