PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland police responded to a shooting in North Portland early Saturday. It was one of 19 shootings from Friday through early Sunday morning.
The purple house across from Unthank Park in North Portland has been in Otha Calvin's family for decades. If anybody knows the neighborhood, it is Calvin.
"The community is safer now and people walk their dogs and there are kids," Calvin said.
It makes what happened early Saturday morning all the more troubling.
Police said they responded to reports of a shooting near North Haight and Failing. Bullets struck two cars and a home, police said.
"It was quick," Calvin said. "You know what it sounds like, what gunshots sound like."
Another shooting was at Southeast 122nd Avenue and Stark Street. As officers gathered evidence there, they heard more gunshots just to the west. Those shots came from a drive-by shooting a few blocks away at Southeast 119th Avenue and Stark Street. Witnesses told officers somebody was firing a gun out of a white SUV.
At Southeast 153rd Avenue and Stark Street, investigators said a suspected car prowler fired at least one shot after getting spooked by a neighbor.
"It scares me," Whisper Davis said. "Yes, it does. I'll be honest with you."
Davis has lived in the area for five years. She said she is more than ready to move.
"I hear a lot of it [gunfire]," she said.
In Old Town Sunday morning, officers found a man and woman shot to death. Their homicides are the 71st and 72nd in Portland this year. That is a record. Just as shocking are the more than 1,040 shootings in The Rose City this year.
"It's always unsettling when you want to live in a society where there's peace and no fear," Calvin said.
Calvin remains hopeful that this city can rise above the gun violence that is plaguing it.
"The village has to come together and try to work together and get a conversation going," he said.
Portland police Chief Chuck Lovell tweeted about the gun violence issue on Monday evening: