PORTLAND, Ore. — A home security camera captured the moment bullets flew through a Parkrose neighborhood. People who live there are so terrified not one of them wanted to show their face on camera.
"You feel like you're a sitting duck," one woman said. "You feel like they're going to come back. Are they going to come back and get us? Are they going to come back and finish it cause now they know what they did?"
The woman and her family woke up to the gunfire early Sunday morning. Their apartment near Northeast 95th and Prescott was hit by dozens of bullets.
"It just sounded like it was never going to end," she said. "Fifteen seconds turned into what felt like an eternity."
A man across the courtyard echoes that sentiment. His apartment was not hit, but his SUV was. Several other vehicles were hit, too.
"We're just regular people and we have multiple cars showing up and trying to shoot at us," the man said. "What did we do?"
This man was not hurt, nor any of his neighbors, which detectives are calling a miracle. Officers recovered more than 100 shell casings at the scene in different calibers.
"Whether it's the most we've had is beside the point," Lt. Greg Pashley said. "One hundred plus, 50 plus, really any number is unacceptable."
Portland has seen more than 870 shootings in 2021. That number is just shy of the total number of shootings in 2020. It more than doubles the number of shootings in 2019.
"It's taken its toll and people don't feel safe playing in front of their house, walking in their neighborhoods," Lt. Pashley said.
Nobody in this Parkrose neighborhood feels safe. Some will tell you this latest spat of gun violence has them considering a move.
"We don't want to be here anymore," a woman said. "I don't want to live here anymore. I want [to be] gone. You don't think it's going to happen to you until it does."