Two people are dead after an early morning shooting at the Embassy Suites Hotel by the Portland International Airport on Wednesday, says the Port of Portland Police.
A Port of Portland Police spokesperson confirmed to KATU that a man and a woman had been killed in a shooting at the hotel at around 2 a.m.
The East County Major Crimes Division is leading the investigation.
A KATU team at the scene early Wednesday morning spoke with guests who described hearing at least a dozen gunshots and seeing blood on the floor as police ushered people to the exit.
Footage from our crews at the scene showed yellow crime scene tape across the entrance and multiple police cars, as well as police officers guiding out guests wrapped in blankets.
One man staying at the hotel Tuesday night describes what happened.
“I went to sleep, everything was great and then all of a sudden, there were gun shots,” said Gailen David.
“I’ve always wondered if I would know they were gunshots if I was ever in that situation, but you know that they’re gunshots, and they went on for a long time. There were probably 15 to 20.”
David works for the Association of Flight Attendants. He’s in town to attend meetings at PDX and never thought he would be a witness to a shooting.
“I heard the screams of men and women, blood curdling screams, and then I just thought, I need to get back to the second room,” he said.
“We have two mothers, two fathers, two families that have lost someone,” said Laurie Palmer, executive director at Go Get Your Child, an anti-violence community group.
Palmer lost her son to gun violence in 2020 and has since been an activist for ending gun violence.
She says she knew the woman's parents and was with the mother when she saw her daughter’s body.
“That mother, she came out there, she seen that body. She lost it,” she said. “And that should not be happening. Period. No mother should have to bury their child.”
This is not the first shooting at the hotel, either.
Port police say an 18-year-old man was shot and killed there in November.
“This is generational,” said Palmer. “We losing our kids here, and it needs to stop. Our Black community, you need to step up and stop sitting back talking and start getting at the table and get some action behind what you’re saying so we can change this community.”
Authorities said there is no ongoing threat at the hotel, to the PDX airport, or to the surrounding area at this time.
If anyone has any information regarding this incident, they are asked to contact EMCT lead detective Jenn Ritschard through the tip line: 503-926-1506