PORTLAND, Ore. – Portland has experienced a rash of gang shootings in the past few months. New data from the Portland Police Bureau’s Gang Enforcement Team shows the shootings are grouped in distinct clusters in North, Northeast and downtown Portland.
The Gang Enforcement Team investigated a total of 31 shootings they believe are gang related, between Jan. 1 and March 29, 2018. Eight took place in January, seven in February and 16 in March.
KGW mapped the shootings and the data shows clusters in the Portsmouth neighborhood, Woodlawn, inner Northeast Portland, and Lents. Several more shootings took place between the Montavilla and Centennial neighborhoods in outer Southeast Portland.
The numbers are not unusual for Portland - there were 22 gang shootings between January and March last year, 34 in 2016 and 35 in 2015.
What is unusual is that many of the shootings erupted after the killing of one man. Last week, police said most of the suspected gang shootings in March were believed to be tied to the homicide of Davonte Kerney.
Kerney, 22, was shot in downtown Portland just after 8 p.m. on Feb. 1. He died that night at a nearby hospital.
