Eskender Tamra was traveling with 19-year-old Babu Daudi and 20-year-old Patrick Johnson Jr. when their car was shot up with multiple bullets by three people on the sidewalk of North Foss Avenue near University Park. Before his death, Eskender showed an interest in studying business in college.
Two weeks after 17-year-old Eskender Tamra and two others were shot and killed in North Portland, Eskender’s family put him to rest at Rose City Cemetery. Hundreds of people huddled into Rose City Cemetery on a rainy Easter Sunday in Northeast Portland, April 9, 2023, for the burial of Eskender Tamra, 17. Eskender was a Franklin High School student killed in a North Portland triple homicide March 25th.
Eskender immigrated to Oregon from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with his older sister to pursue better educational opportunities. Their mother had moved to Portland in 2009, and they were reunited in 2016. He was a junior at Franklin High School in Southeast Portland.
At his funeral on Sunday, at Kidane Mihret Ethiopian Orthodox Church, some people close to him worried that the facts of his death may be buried with him. He was supposed to be going from one job to another when he was shot, his sister said.
Scores of his family and friends stood in the rain and cried. They said Eskender enjoyed playing basketball with friends, cheering on the Portland Trail Blazers and playing video games in his spare time, his family said. He worked two jobs, picking up shifts at a Fred Meyer and a Taco Bell while managing his school work.
