PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland police have released the identity of the victim in a fatal shooting in the Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood on the evening of July 8.
The medical examiner identified the victim as 21-year-old Portland resident Joevon Leroy Patterson and confirmed his cause of death to be homicide by gunshot wound, according to a July 26 police news release. His family has been notified.
Patterson was one of two people who were shot on that Friday evening, prompting a massive search effort that eventually resulted in multiple people being detained, according to a prior police news release.
Police responded shortly after 7 p.m. to reports of a shooting near the intersection of Southeast 112th Avenue and Southeast Powell Boulevard. At the scene, officers found one man dead and another injured.
The wounded victim was taken to the hospital by ambulance with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening. The injured victim has not been publicly identified.
A police spokesman said that the suspects left the scene of the shooting, but officers encountered them nearby at Southeast 120th and Southeast Powell. The suspects ran off into the nearby neighborhood when police drew near. PPB did not know at the time how many were involved, but they were believed to be armed.
Because it seemed clear that the suspects were still nearby, PPB decided to bring in "numerous" officers and set up a perimeter before methodically searching the area.
PPB said that tactical teams responded to help with the search. This included the Special Emergency Reaction Team (SERT) — Portland's answer to SWAT — the Crisis Negotiation Team (CNT), K9 units, and the agency's surveillance plane.
The search was centered on Southeast 120th Avenue and Southeast Kelly Street, PPB said, with the tactical groups assisting officers from the East Precinct and the Focused Intervention Team (FIT), the city's gun violence task force.
Southeast 122nd Avenue was closed in both directions between Southeast Clinton and Southeast Bush. Southeast Powell was closed between Southeast 108th and Southeast 122nd. Police kept both drivers and pedestrians out of the area.
"Community members within that perimeter are being asked to lock doors and windows and shelter in place during the search," PPB said in a statement that night, noting that the agency used notifications through the Public Alerts system to relay the message.
Neighbors told KGW that they were shaken by the shooting and the massive search, but not surprised.
"It's either street racing, a fire or some kind of explosion," said Viktoriya, who lives on Southeast 122nd Avenue. She said that at one point, someone was hiding in her yard.
Viktoriya described to KGW how police had eventually zeroed in on an apartment complex near her house, leading to a lengthy standoff. After commands for the people within to come out went unheeded, officers eventually used an explosive to blow the door down on one of the units.
Michelle, who has lived in the area for 20 years, said that this is just what you can expect in her neighborhood these days.
"There are fights at the Safeway constantly," she said. "We have a joke — we don't need cable TV in Southeast Portland."
Officers suspended the search and lifted closures around 12:45 a.m., PPB said, though police were still working to detain the people in the apartment well into Saturday morning. Southeast 122nd remained shut down between Southeast Clinton and Southeast Powell for the investigation.
Police detained several people in connection with the shooting, though a PPB statement did not clarify how many or if any had been arrested. The July 26 news release stated that all of the individuals detained after the block search were questioned by homicide detectives and later released. None of them have been charged at this time, police said, and the investigation is still ongoing.
As of late June, Portland police had recorded 655 confirmed shootings in the city since the beginning of the year. At least 197 people had been injured by gunfire at that time. Both in terms of shootings and injuries, Portland's numbers were slightly ahead of where they were at the same time in 2021, when there were 574 shootings and 182 injuries.
There were 42 recorded homicides in Portland as of late June, 38 attributed to shootings. By comparison, there were 90 homicides in all of 2021. These counts do not include people shot and killed by police, of which there have been two this year.