From Portland Police:
I trust everyone has heard about the 118th GVRT deployment this past Monday to a shooting that took place at King School Park on the NE Grand Ave side of the park? This was a gang related shooting where a young woman was shot in the hand. The Gang Enforcement Team was called to the scene where they recovered 18 shell casings and discovered a van with a shot out window along with two additional bullet holes in it. Many of the other rounds that were fired travelled into the neighborhood. It is a miracle that no one else was hit.
North Precinct, GET, YSD along with our community partners will be gathering at the park up at the site of the shooting (top of the park next to the park benches) at 6pm on Wednesday, Sept 2nd.
Our goal for this meeting is to pass along factual information about what happened surrounding the shooting and to message to the community that their park is safe and that we want them to continue to use the park and not allow this act of violence to drive families away.
Stephon Hartley who is an intern in the Mayor’s office and I had a follow up discussion after he sent me an email that he received from a concerned citizen regarding the recent shooting. Stephon and I decided that we would call this meeting in an effort to bring together the community and make something positive happen out of something negative. Our intention is to move forward purposeful conversations and dialogue as it pertains to building community engagement and outreach (CEO) with neighbors and park patrons.
- GET will present facts about the shooting and discuss where they are at in the process of the investigation and how the community can assist the police.
- YSD will make a statement surrounding school safety and reaffirm to the community that their children are safe to attend school.
- Officer Zoeller from North Precinct will have an opportunity to discuss how he can assist neighbors with crime issues as their Neighborhood Response Team Officer.
- The Parks Bureau will provide a statement and information about city parks.
- All additional partners will be given 1-3 minutes to speak about their role in keeping the park, school and community safe.
There will be opportunities to hand out flyers and other safety information if you would like to do that.
The meeting will wrap up after Q and A from the community.
If anyone would like to attend the planning meeting we will be available to meet next Wednesday, Sept 2nd at 4:30pm at North Precinct in the community room to vet through the 6pm meeting agenda. Drop by if you can otherwise we will plan to see you out at the park at 6pm.
Please forward the meeting date and time to anyone you believe could benefit from taking part in this meeting next week.
Take care,
Chris
Chris Uehara
Commander, North Precinct
Portland Police Bureau
449 NE Emerson St
Portland, Oregon 97211
