Portland Area Suffers Multiple, Suspected Gang Related Crimes this Weekend
Over the weekend of August 12-14, the Portland area again suffered from multiple crimes that all appear to be gang related.
The first of these crimes happened early Saturday morning, leaving a, unidentified 23-year-old Portland man in critical condition at OHSU after being stabbed multiple times. Just after 2am, Gresham Police officers responded to 17904 E Burnside St in Portland on the report of a male stabbing victim. No suspects were found at the scene and the victim was transported to the hospital with multiple, serious stabs wounds.
Later in the morning, officers were flagged-down on SE Stark St on the report of a domestic disturbance. During this investigation, officers learned that 2 men were most likely involved in the stabbing from earlier in the morning. Javier Santa Cruz-Ramirez and Erick Marciel where taken into custody on charges unrelated to the stabbing. The investigation is on-going and anyone with any information about the incident is encouraged to contact the Gresham Police tipline at 503-618-2719.
The second of these crimes occurred later on Saturday in North Portland when officers were called to the scene where multiple victims were suffering from stab wounds in the area of NE 15th Ave and Mason. Arriving officers located 21-year-old Brian Denault and 22-year-old Steven Parks and quickly summoned medical crews to treat and transport. Denault was released after a short hospital stay while Parks remained hospitalized on Sunday with serious injuries.
The investigation revealed that 3 individuals approached the victims on Saturday evening when an altercation occurred. The suspects were described as 2 African American and 1 Hispanic males. Officers later located 3 men matching the suspect descriptions and took them into custody. After further investigation, 1 of the 3 detained suspects, a 17-year-old male, was arrested and lodged at a juvenile detention facility.
Finally, on Sunday afternoon just before 1pm, Portland Police officers responded to a call of shots fired in the area of NE 18th Ave and NE Dekum St. Arriving in the area, they located shell casing but no victims. Officers determined through their investigation that an African American man in his 20′s was seen in a black sedan firing several shots at 2 people before fleeing in an unknown direction. As of Sunday evening, Portland Police officers do not yet have a suspect or any additional information on the crime. If you have any information, you are asked to contact Detective Goodwin at 503-823-2079 or Detective Merrill at 503-823-2092.
While all 3 of these crimes may be gang related, they are not believed to be connected to each other in any way.
I wish we could stop using the term “African American” and start using the word “black,” as that is what we mean – we do not mean someone whose ancestry is, for example, Libyan, or, arguably at least, Afrikaners. In other words, African Americans are technically not necessarily negroid – except we never mean anything else.
This is all fall out from yawshawnee vaughn’s killing. I say put an electric fence around NE Portland, give each of them a gun and in 30 days…..no more gang shootings. These losers prove the theory of evolution – Darwinism in action. Why do we waste our time calling medical treatment for them?
Wondering: Do you believe in the new testament? Not trying to be nasty in any way, just an honest question.
Laura, I’m not sure how to respond to your comment, nor if any response–any attention–is even warranted:
What I can say, however, is that I live only two-and-a-half blocks from one of the locations this weekend where violent thoughts became violent actions.
Where humans turned on humans. And blood was spilled.
I live here with my wife, my 3-year-old, and my six-month-old. We are one of the many honest, hard working, friendly families who live in these NE neighborhoods. If you were to walk down our sidewalks, you’re sure to be greeted with a smile, a “hello”, and an invitation to pet the chickens playing in the yard or taste the fresh figs hanging in the tree. Two blocks away from our home (and two blocks from this weekend’s crime scene) is a library filled with children and their parents at storytime, and next door to that is a WholeFoods, and next door to that is a Starbucks, and down the street a few more blocks is a park where on any given day you’ll find countless twenty-somethings playing adult-league softball or kickball and their fans cheering from the sunny green hillside above the field.
This isn’t a ghetto. It’s our paradise.
It’s our garden. Our home. Our community.
Creativity runs in our blood, compassion in the air we breathe. And you are welcome to visit us any time you like. But one might be so bold as to link the aggressive feelings you shared (and the rash ignorance of those views) to the aggression and ignorance that displayed itself this weekend. Those views are not the solution to our apparent struggles, they are what paints our streets in deeper shades of red and tears.
We in Northeast, need to find creative and compassionate bridges over these walls of hatred and violence.
Lucky for us, we believe we’re the most creative Art District in a city known for its bridges. If compassion is what moves us, then the rest should be easy…
P.S. Jam: I <3 the new testament.