Witness describes deadly brawl in Portland’s Kerns neighborhood

PORTLAND, Ore. ( KOIN ) – After an assault turned deadly in the Kerns neighborhood, one resident at an apartment complex near Northeast 26th Avenue and Buxton Street said she witnessed the confrontation.

Shortly after waking up “realizing two men were arguing,” she said a a man died in the outdoor hallway Monday afternoon.

She told KOIN 6 said she heard, “‘bang, bang, bang,’ and yelling, my landlord saying, ‘Stop. Stop you two.’ And then it went silent.”

The neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous, said she watched the building’s handyman continue to fight a younger man with a dog despite her landlord begging the men to stop.

When the two men disappeared into the brick hallway, she said she raced to her bedroom window and heard the brawl escalate.

“That banging against the wall out here. It has to be two bodies, you know, or somebody’s getting knocked,” she said. “And obviously the one that died either struck his head on that wall or he fell. And at some point they said that he was dead.”

She and the landlord called 911, but shortly after paramedics arrived, the handyman was pronounced dead. The other man involved was questioned by police, but not arrested.

Authorities say everyone involved is accounted for and the manner of death is still under investigation.

Stay with KOIN 6 News as this story develops.

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