The Portland Police Bureau said detectives have cleared half of last year’s 90 reported homicides. Portland city commissioner Mingus Mapps said the agency needs more resources to deal with the growing number of crimes. Mapps is neither the police chief nor the police commissioner. However, he’s one of five votes on Portland’s city council. “If we’re going to be the kind of city that we hope to be, one of the things that we really need to do is to provide families with the support they need in order to come forward when you’ve seen especially a violent crime,” Mapps said.
The number of homicides in Portland surpassed more populous cities like San Francisco and Boston — and more than double the number of slayings last year in its larger Pacific Northwest neighbor Seattle. PPB are recording multiple shootings a week with 50 to 70 shots fired. ages of homicide victims ranged from a 3-month-old boy to a 77-year-old woman killed in a hit-and-run rampage that also injured at least seven others.
The first weekend of 2022 as 3 people were shot to death in the city. On Sunday, one person was shot to death around 9 a.m. on North Morgan Street. There were other shootings this weekend that left people wounded. On Sunday officers responded to a shooting downtown and found a gentleman shot in the chest,” PPB Lt. Nathan Sheppard reported. Fortunately, the officer was able to run to his car, get his first aid kit, and use specialized patches to save the man’s life.”
At about 11 p.m., North Precinct officers were called out to the intersection of Northeast Ivy Street and Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on the report of a shooting. Officers arrived to the scene and found a male dead. It’s not known at this time if the victim was an adult or juvenile.
The two people found deceased in the 2100 Block of Southeast 103rd Drive have been identified as Karen Friedstrom, 74, and her son Justin Friedstrom, 47. Homicide Detectives at the scene determined Justin shot his mother, then shot himself. The Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office determined the manner of death for both to be by gunshot wound. Karen Friedstrom’s death was ruled a homicide, and Justin Friedstrom’s death was ruled a suicide.
