PORTLAND, Ore. — Neighborhoods across the Portland area are reeling after a violent weekend left two people dead and twice that many hurt.
It started early
Friday morning at a hotel room party at a Residence Inn Mariott in Northeast Portland.
Police said 36 rounds were fired. They also said it was gang related.
Only one woman, a guest staying nearby, was grazed by a bullet.
Later that day, a packed stretch of Southeast Powell played home to a second shooting. That time, police said bullets flew between cars, and another woman was hit.
She’s also expected to be OK, according to police.
From there, though, the damage escalated.
Saturday night in Beaverton, a man died and a second man was hurt after gunshots rang out outside a quinceanera celebration.
Police said Roshawn Travers fired the shots.
Finally, there was a fourth death in Northwest Portland on Sunday night. Police said it happened at 4th Avenue and Davis Street.
A man was killed, a woman was injured and 48-year-old Thomas Dorris is charged with murder.
James Leong works nearby and says he’s stunned.
“I can say nothing because I see it get worse and worse,” he said.
Assistant police Chief Kevin Modica agreed Monday that the weekend was bad.
He also pointed out, “There’s no common thread.”
Modica added, it’s frustrating after months of pushing public awareness through groups like ‘Enough is Enough’.
For some perspective, he says the Bureau’s gang unit has responded ot 72 shootings so far this year.
That’s on par with last year’s total from around this time.
“It becomes disappointing at times when results that you are setting goals for achieving aren’t happening as fast as you would like,” he said.
Criminologist Randy Blazak says that will make it tough to prevent similar spikes in the future.
It’s especially difficult, he points out, in a city where crime tends to spread out geographically, leaving officers scrambling to stretch resources and chase bullets.
“We don’t have the other side of the tracks or places that have been disinvested from. Portland is a very economically integrated city,” he said. “Having different types of crime in different parts of the city make it more challenging for police but also points to the need for more police officers.”
Representatives for the bureau point out that won’t happen anytime soon.
They say right now, each individual officer is handling a case load that’s 32 percent larger than what they were assigned in 2012.
According to an annual study released by the U.S. Justice Department, as of 2013, the city of Portland had 16 full-time police officers for every 10,000 residents.
The city of New York has 41. Chicago has 44, and Seattle has 20.
Study on police staffing levels nationwide (Scroll to page 14 to see how Portland compares to other cities.)