Teen boy shot in leg in E Portland; neighbors say they woke to gunshots

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - A 16-year-old boy was shot and injured in the east Portland Glenfair neighborhood early Sunday morning, according to the Portland Police Bureau.

Police say they responded shortly after 2:30 a.m. to a shooting near Southeast 160th Avenue and Stark Street. Finding the injured teen, police applied a tourniquet to his leg and he was taken at a local hospital for treatment.

People living nearby they woke up to what sounded like gunshots.

One woman said the shots sounded like they were coming from right outside her front door.

“It was six shots,” she said.

The scene was a scary sight, she said.

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After hearing the shots, she waited to see what the commotion was about until police arrived. However, fearing for the safety of her family and friends she started making calls.

“We have family members that stay here, so I was just calling around to see if anybody was hit.”

At the scene, FOX 12 crews found what appeared to be a bullet that had struck a car.

The neighbor said she heard that a teenage boy had been hurt.

“I heard the uncle saying, ‘he’s shot, he’s shot,’” she said.

The victim’s uncle told her that his teenage nephew had been shot in the leg.

“He said, ‘the bullet came in one way and out the other.’ So, it was an ‘in and out.’”

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She said people have called this part of a town “a bad area,” and said she was told that the victim and his uncle were on their way back from the store when he was shot.

“It was just a random shooting, I guess you could say, because they didn’t even know what was going on. I’m sure the boy is going to be traumatized as well. I just hope he’s ok.”

According to police, the shooter had been in a vehicle that immediately left the scene and they have not yet made any arrests.

The woman said it’s scary living in a place where something unpredictable may happen, and said she has empathy for those with kids who are just trying to do regular day-to-day things.

“When your kids go out to the store, you have to worry about their safety, and, ‘are your kids going to come home safe?’ So, it’s stressful.”

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