PORTLAND, Ore. — A 14-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl were injured in a shooting early Thursday morning on Northeast Rocky Butte Lane in Northeast Portland, by the Rocky Butte Natural Area, the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) reported.
The shooting happened shortly before 3 a.m. According to a PPB spokesperson, 38 rounds were fired and 11 of them struck a vehicle that had five kids between the ages of 12 and 14 inside. The group included the 14-year-old boy and 12-year-old girl who were injured. The three other kids inside the vehicle were not hurt, police said.
The boy was taken to the hospital with serious injuries and the girl, who police said was "grazed" by a bullet, was treated at the scene. At least two occupied homes and a second, parked vehicle were hit by bullets, PPB said.
"I think it's fair to say that it could've been way worse," said Sgt. Kevin Allen with Portland police. "We're grateful it wasn't worse, but definitely a scary situation, really a potential tragedy here. Those of us who are parents, we recognize when we talk about kids, we want to protect our kids. And when we have gun violence happening in our neighborhoods it's bad enough, but when it's impacting our children, it increases the concern for me and I know many of our community members."
Bruce Duncan, whose home was one of those hit by bullets, said he was up at the time, getting ready for work. He said he found bullets that went through the wall in his house. One, he said, went through the wall in his dining room right where he was walking.
"It was within two feet of the path I was about to walk," he said.
Duncan and another neighbor, Paulette Holley, who said she gave some water to some of the kids after the shooting, wondered why children were out driving around at 3 a.m.
"It's violence for no reason," Duncan said. "12- to 14-year-olds get shot and that's sad, it's a tragedy, and I blame the shooters for that, but at the same time, it's 2:52 a.m. when those shots came off. And so as parents out there, what are your 12- and 14-year-olds doing at 2:52 a.m., why are they in some neighborhood they don't live in?"
Said Holley: "These kids are 12 to 14, out running around at 3 a.m., 2 a.m., I don't know. I don't know what happened. Why are they allowed to do this?"
Allen said he knew the kids were driving around in the neighborhood but couldn't provide any more specifics than that.
No arrests have been made and police have provided no suspect information. Allen said neighbors may have surveillance video that could help with the investigation.
"It's important someone is held accountable for this shooting," Allen said, "in addition to the others we're dealing with here in Portland."
Portland has seen a sharp rise in homicides and non-fatal shootings over the past three years. Last year, Portland logged a record 88 homicides, more than three times its historical average, and is on pace to top that number, with 57 homicides this year, Portland police reported Thursday morning, including 51 shooting homicides.
A recent analysis conducted by the firm California Partnership for Safe Communities (CPSC), examined both homicides and non-fatal shootings in Portland from 2019 through 2021.
Over those three years, the analysis found, Portland saw a 144% increase in its homicide count and a 241% increase in non-fatal shootings that resulted in injury. The number of non-fatal shootings have followed a linear upward progression, adding about 100 additional instances each year since 2019. The city has seen 844 shootings this year, with 252 people injured in those shootings, Portland police reported.
That report's data showed that 2019 marked a clear dividing line for when the spike began. Before that year, Portland continually remained below a 20-year average of 28 homicides per year, with 2004 marking the only prior exception, when there were 29 homicides. But Portland shot up to 36 homicides in 2019, 57 in 2020 and 88 in 2021.
"We do have a significant gun violence problem in this city," Allen said. "It's something as police officers we're working on, but we can't do it alone. The solution to this is a city-wide solution."
Allen said police are as frustrated as the public is about the gun violence and want to see it change. He said PPB hired eight officers Thursday morning and 16 last month, but he said the bureau is still understaffed. He said its members are struggling under the weight of what they're seeing on a nearly daily basis.
"I always remind people, yes, we go to these calls all the time but we're still human beings and when we go to a call where someone is shot, especially a kid, it impacts us too," he said. "We're first responders, so we go to these calls before anybody else and we're seeing the injuries and the pain caused by this gun violence. It's very real to us. Nobody wants to see this changed more than members of the PPB, I can say that."