PORTLAND, Ore. — A Portland man narrowly escaped serious injury early Saturday morning after at least five bullets sailed into his home, the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) reported. A bullet grazed the shoulder of the man while he slept. He wasn't seriously injured and didn't need medical attention.
Officers responded to the area around Southeast Powell Boulevard and Southeast 131st Avenue at around 1:45 a.m. Saturday after gunshots hit the house and a car.
Police said they think the bullets were fired from a vehicle on Southeast Powell near Southeast 132nd Avenue and that they traveled a block before striking the home. Police said they don't believe the man inside the home was the intended target of the shooting. No suspects have been located.
One bullet slightly grazed the shoulder of the man sleeping inside. Police said if the bullet had a slightly different trajectory, it could have been a life-threatening situation.
Matthew Harris was in his bedroom next door reading a book when the shooting took place.
"All the sudden I heard bap, bap, bap, bap, bap, like nine shots go off, a whole clip. You hear it off in the distance, but this was pretty close, it was scary," Harris said.
While people were trying to make sense of what happened in the Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood Saturday morning, Multnomah County leaders, including Sheriff Mike Reese, used a virtual town hall meeting Saturday afternoon to discuss gun violence.
"Unfortunately the gun violence is eroding away the sense of safety and security in many of our neighborhoods," Reese said.
While officials look for answers to the spike in gun violence in Portland, people living through it, such as Harris, believe they have to look out for themselves.
"It does worry me a lot, so I just hope everybody watches out for themselves and their children," Harris said.
PPB is asking anyone with any information about this case to please email crimetips@portlandoregon.gov attention: ECST and reference case number 21-303573. It is also asking for people with surveillance video on SE Powell to review their footage from Saturday between 1:30 and 1:45 a.m.
Anonymous tips can be sent through Crime Stoppers. Crime Stoppers of Oregon offers cash rewards of up to $2,500 cash for information, reported to Crime Stoppers, that leads to an arrest in any unsolved felony crime and tipsters can remain anonymous.