PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A shooting suspect is still in the hospital and under police custody after officers said the man opened fire on a Southeast Portland neighborhood Wednesday night — launching that entire community into lockdown.
According to the Portland Police Bureau, an hour-long “shelter in place order” was issued for residents in the area of Southeast 88th and Flavel street, after authorities received reports of a man shooting indiscriminately at people and cars at about 9:15 p.m.
Witnesses in the Lents neighborhood told KOIN 6 News they were winding down for the evening when shots began to ring out through the streets, terrifying neighbors, and striking at least one car with a passenger inside.
“Anytime you have somebody firing shots and neighborhood it is scary for the people who live there, the people who are passing through and certainly in this case, I have no doubt that it was pretty terrifying for the folks that were being shot at,” said Sergeant Kevin Allen with the Portland Police Bureau.
Law enforcement said the armed man, was the same suspect who had generated several emergency calls earlier that day for threatening to kill himself and police.
However, the bureau said they were unable to make contact with the alleged shooter until after 10 p.m., when they received reports that someone was lying shot and injured in the middle of the street.
“They realized pretty quickly that the person down was actually the shooting suspect, and he still had the gun,” Allen stated. “That is when the Specialty Emergency Reaction Team and the Crisis Negotiation Team were deployed.”
Neighbor Mark Coy says he was on the ground applying pressure to the gunman’s wound.
“The man was laying on the ground about where that white sign is in the street, and there were some really great people were attending to him. They’re holding compression on some of the wounds in his leg. It was on his chest, so I don’t know if he got shot in the chest or not, but it seemed like he did,” Coy said.
Clad in ballistic armor, police said SERT officers were able to take the injured shooter into custody before transporting him to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Law enforcement was also able to retrieve a black and silver semi-automatic handgun along with a box of ammunition from the scene.
“At least one person, and possibly two, report that they had been shot at,” Allen told KOIN 6 News. “The only known injury is the suspect himself. The other victims were shot at but at this point we have not found anybody who was actually injured by gunfire, fortunately.”
Police said they are still working to find out how the man received his injuries, but told KOIN 6 News they plan on charging him once he is released from the hospital.