More stories from June's issue of THE BEE!


Here comes the 17th Annual “82nd Avenue of Roses Parade”! Carrying the banner are volunteers Larry Smith and Kathryn Notson.
Here comes the 17th Annual “82nd Avenue of Roses Parade”! Carrying the banner are volunteers Larry Smith and Kathryn Notson. (Photo by David F. Ashton)
Appearing in the parade this year were four Portland City Commissioners – shown here in the order in which they appeared, from left: Mingus Mapps, Rene Gonzalez, Dan Ryan, and Carmen Rubio.
Appearing in the parade this year were four Portland City Commissioners – shown here in the order in which they appeared, from left: Mingus Mapps, Rene Gonzalez, Dan Ryan, and Carmen Rubio. (Photo by David F. Ashton)

82ndAvenue of Roses Parade returns, to kick off Rose Festival season

By DAVID F. ASHTON
For THE BEE

The last Saturday in April just wasn’t the same, for the last three years – because of the absence of the “82nd Avenue of Roses Parade”. But, now with the pandemic in remission, its 17th annual edition was back on the street on Saturday, April 29th, bigger and better than ever.

While the parade was still assembling in the Century Theater parking lot behind Eastport Plaza, families were gathering along S.E. 82nd Avenue north of Eastport Plaza, choosing their own locations to enjoy the parade.

The parade stepped off promptly at 9:30 a.m., and marched north along the temporarily-closed highway, with only occasional stops at major intersections – orchestrated by members of the Portland Police Bureau Motorcycle Division – to let cross traffic through.

A total of 45 entries entertained thousands of watchers for over a half an hour – and this year’s parade included more marching bands than ever before. Kids scrambled for candy tossed by some of the parade participants, while parents smiled as they enjoyed the return of this hope-giving community parade.

“The 82nd Avenue of Roses Parade began back in 2007, started by a small group of businesses, friends, and neighbors, and was intended to create a fun, festive, and welcoming event to show off the neighborhoods around 82nd Avenue,” recalled Parade Coordinator Nancy Chapin. “The pandemic may have slowed down its momentum, but all who saw this year’s parade would certainly say ‘It’s back!’”

The parade’s organizers are proud to be associated with the Portland Rose Festival, Chapin said, “Because, sixty years ago, the Rose Festival Parade was held along 82nd Avenue; so we’re continuing the tradition.” Indeed, the parade is recognized as part of Portland’s annual citywide celebration.

“We’re grateful that the Portland Rose Festival Foundation is a sponsor, and are supportive of us being the first parade of the parade season,” Chapin smiled “So many volunteers put so much into this parade because they realize that the east side of Portland needs to have a signature event that celebrates our community, and gives our residents and businesses an opportunity to celebrate, in person, here in Southeast Portland.”

If you missed the parade, here it is – an exclusive BEE video production that includes every entry in the 17th Annual 2023 82nd Avenue of Roses Parade, on an unusually sunny and warm spring Saturday in Southeast Portland, on April 29th....

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Police cruisers were parked alongside Cleveland High School after the December 12th shooting that left a student injured. The shooting renewed calls to reinstate School Resource Officers in Portland Schools.
Police cruisers were parked alongside Cleveland High School after the December 12th shooting that left a student injured. The shooting renewed calls to reinstate School Resource Officers in Portland Schools. (Photo by Courtney Vaughn)

Return of ‘School Resource Officers’ a possibility

By COURTNEY VAUGHN
Pamplin Media Group

A shooting outside Cleveland High School left a 16-year-old student injured on Monday, December 12, and sparked renewed talks of School Resource Officers on Portland campuses.

Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell, himself once an honored School Resource Officer, said two days later that the Police Bureau was in talks with Portland Public Schools about whether to bring back the school-based officers.

PPS did confirm that, commenting that the District “looks forward to continued discussions with the Portland Police Bureau. We are committed to keeping our schools safe, while working collaboratively with our students and members of our community to find a solution to the senseless gun violence,” a District statement said.

These talks have not yet led to a new plan for such officers, but evidently the conversation is continuing

The teen involved in the CHS shooting was not identified, but was reported at the time to be recovering after being hit by gunfire from a person known to the student, outside the school at around 12:30 p.m. The school was placed on lockdown, and classes were canceled the following day. Police said on December 17th that the shooting apparently was not a random act: “Everyone involved in the incident has been identified, but no arrests had been made.”

You may recall that Portland Public Schools ended the use of “school resource officers” in June of 2020, less than two weeks after the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.

However, in the final three months of last year, PPS students were shot three different times, including the December 12 shooting at the Cleveland High campus on Powell Boulevard. The incident at Cleveland was the second shooting to injure students at school since October, when two students at Jefferson High School were hit by gunfire from a passing car outside the school.

Students at Jefferson described running into the school’s gym for cover. One teen was hit by a bullet in the leg and another was reportedly grazed in the hand. The next month, in November, another Jefferson student was hospitalized after being shot in the shoulder shortly after leaving campus.

Before that, back in April, four David Douglas School District students were shot at, leaving one of them dead.

Following the Cleveland High shooting, PPS Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero urged “community solutions” to curbing the city’s rising gun violence – observing that students needed safe environments, free of anxiety and fear. Since then, there have also been two shooting incidents near Franklin High School, one of which was on campus in a parking lot.

While police point to the need to bring officers back to school campuses to curb the gun violence near schools, and many parents are calling for an increased police presence in and around Portland schools, some people are still skeptical of the idea.

Pastor J.W. Matt Hennessee of Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church, who leads an Inter-faith Peace and Action Collaborative in Portland, and helped found the Portland Peace Initiative in 2021 in response to the city’s rising gun violence, said the issue can’t be solved by police alone. “There’s no one solution to how we reduce gun violence. It takes a multiplicity of activities,” Hennessee remarked. “You’ve got really an upstream and a downstream thing that’s going on. It really is a public health issue.”

Hennessee’s stepson, 33-year-old Jalon Yoakum, was shot and killed on Portland’s streets in May of 2021. He said recent IPAC roundtable discussions with Portland Peace Initiative have focused on the city’s monetary investments in community organizations, non-police response teams like Portland Street Response and the city’s Crisis Response Team, as well as technology-based companies like ShotSpotter, pitching solutions to quickly and accurately detect and report gunfire to emergency responders.

“I’ve been involved in this very unfortunate lane for many years,” Hennessee said of the shootings that often leave families and victims with few answers and little closure. “[Often] we are left with a lot of questions as to why this happened, and we are left with no clues or anything like that. We know our Police Bureau is taxed. We know they’re doing everything they can. But unfortunately, we have no answers about who did it, or why.”



Riding the bus will be getting a little more expensive next New Year’s Day, but the planned fare increase is considerably less than the recent rate of inflation.
Riding the bus will be getting a little more expensive next New Year’s Day, but the planned fare increase is considerably less than the recent rate of inflation. (PMG file ophoto)

TriMet Board adopts a fare increase plan

By ANNA DEL SAVIO
Pamplin Media Group

TriMet is still mulling the new bus route ideas we have shared with you in recent months. But in late May they decided what they will do to nudge fares a bit to help cover their increasing costs.

It will be TriMet’s first across-the-board fare increase in over a decade, and the plan is to raise adult fares by 30 cents, and youth and honored citizen fares by 15 cents -- far less than the current rate of inflation.

Dozens of riders spoke in opposition to the proposed fare hike at TriMet’s Board Meeting on Wednesday, April 26. The Board voted to approve the proposal at its May 24 meeting.

The price increase will bring a two-and-a-half-hour adult ticket to $2.80. LIFT paratransit single rides will also increase to $2.80. Youth and honored citizen tickets will be $1.40. Day passes will also increase, to stay equal to the cost of two individual tickets.

Although the vote to approve was on May 24, the fare increases will not occur until January. 1, 2024.

The proposal, which was prepared by TriMet staff at the Board’s request, will not increase the price of monthly passes from the current rate of $100 for adults and $28 for youth and honored citizens.

Keeping the monthly passes at the current price will mitigate the impact of the ticket price increase for the most-frequent riders, but not for riders who ride somewhat infrequently or don’t have a bank card or physical “Hop” card.

TriMet riders can pay with a credit or debit card, by tapping to pay with the bank card, or linking it to a smartphone via a mobile wallet, or the “Hop” app. With a physical “Hop” card you can also pay upon boarding, with a record kept of your boardings to keep track of the monthly use against the monthly limit. Hop cards which can be purchased and reloaded at grocery stores around the Tri-County region..

Riders who use a physical “Hop” card or a credit or debit card aren’t charged for additional rides after they hit the day pass or month pass prices. But for riders who purchase paper tickets or use cash onboard, there’s no way to track and stop charging once they’ve hit the day or month cost.

For an adult, the $100 month pass is currently equal to 40 rides. For a daily rider, the monthly cost wouldn’t go up; they would just hit the $100 cap sooner.

But even with the price increase, an adult taking the bus to and from work as often as four days a week wouldn’t always hit the monthly price cap.

Youth and honored citizens now reach the $28 monthly price cap after 23 rides. With the price increase, they will reach the cap after 20 rides.

“The way to sort of minimize, mitigate, or avoid personal impacts is really to lean into our monthly fare cap process, as well as to start expanding registration in the low-income fare program, specifically for people of color as well as limited-English-proficient communities,” John Gardner said at the April 26 meeting. He’s TriMet’s Chief Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access Officer.

TriMet offers the Honored Citizen rate to seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income riders in households making less than double the federal poverty level – $29,160 per year, for a one-person household. More than 50,000 people have signed up for the low-income fare reduction program since it started in 2018.

To offset the impacts of the fare increases, TriMet leadership plans to expand access and registration for the reduced fare program, and to make program enrollment valid for three years, an increase from the current two years.

For more than a decade prior to 2012, TriMet had increased fares almost every year, usually by just five cents. The new increased fare rates will bring in an additional $4.9 million each year, TriMet estimates, bringing passenger revenues for the next fiscal year to $56.2 million. The agency’s total expected revenue for the year is $958 million.



Officers conferred with a criminalist at the entrance of the store where the deadly shooting took place, in the Foster-Powell neighborhood.
Officers conferred with a criminalist at the entrance of the store where the deadly shooting took place, in the Foster-Powell neighborhood. (Photo by David F. Ashton)
Officials say that this man, 29-year-old Zachery Freeman, died in the “adult store” shooting on Foster Road.
Officials say that this man, 29-year-old Zachery Freeman, died in the “adult store” shooting on Foster Road. (Family-provided photo)

Man dies in Foster Road shooting; shooter dead in Clackamas County

By DAVID F. ASHTON
For THE BEE

Not long after a customer – whom employees described as “a regular”, seen daily – walked into “Fantasyland”, at 5228 S.E. Foster Road, on Sunday morning, April 23, he got into a loud disagreement with another man near the “rear arcades” inside the store. Then, there were gunshots.

At 10:26 a.m., East Precinct officers arrived at the store – described as “an adult merchandise store and smoke shop” – and inside, they found a man dead. The officers immediately summoned detectives from the Homicide Unit and criminalists from the Forensic Evidence Division to take over the investigation.

As the investigators arrived, parking up and down the street, the PPB Mobile Command Center also pulled up and parked on the south side of S.E. Foster Road.

While a criminalist photographed the murder scene, detectives watched what had led up to the deadly shooting on the store’s video surveillance system.

The investigation kept police at the store for most of the day. However, by that evening, Homicide Division detectives had identified a suspect in the shooting – 29-year-old Zachary Watson – and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

PPB officers spotted a vehicle that matched Watson’s car a day later, at about 10:40 p.m., on S.E. 82nd Avenue of Roses, near Holgate Boulevard.

The Clackamas County District Attorney's office later told reporters what happened next.

Attempts to stop Watson, including through the use of spike strips, were unsuccessful – and he sped south into Clackamas County. Officers finally used a “PIT maneuver” to spin out the vehicle, south of S.E Causey Avenue, and across from the La-Z-Boy store, north of Clackamas Town Center.

Watson attempted a U-turn, to go back north on 82nd Avenue. That’s when Watson produced a gun and reportedly opened fire on police – leading PPB officers and Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office deputies to return fire. “Lifesaving measures were administered; however, the suspect died at the scene,” Clackamas County Sheriff’s spokesperson Deputy John Wildhaber later reported.

On April 26, the PPB confirmed that the suspect killed in the shootout in Happy Valley was 29-year-old Zachery Freeman.

Anyone with information on this incident who has not yet spoken to police is asked to contact Detective Meghan Burkeen – meghan.burkeen@police.portlandoregon.gov; or Detective Brian Sims – brian.sims@police.portlandoregon.gov.  If you do, refer to this case – case No. 23-105084.



State Rep. Rob Nosse [center] listens to a presentation at the latest “S. E. Powell Blvd. Safety Workgroup” meeting at Cleveland High School.
State Rep. Rob Nosse [center] listens to a presentation at the latest “S. E. Powell Blvd. Safety Workgroup” meeting at Cleveland High School. (Photo by David F. Ashton)

‘Powell Blvd Safety Workgroup’ meets with agencies, for a safer highway

By DAVID F. ASHTON
For THE BEE

Once again, on the Wednesday evening of April 26, the “S.E. Powell Blvd. Safety Workgroup” met in the Cleveland High School Library in an effort to push their street safety agenda forward.

The group began in response to the October 4 death of bicyclist Sarah Pliner near the high school on S.E. Powell Boulevard at 26th Avenue. “In the time that it took for us to meet a second time, two more people died on Powell Boulevard,” Oregon State Representative, District 46, Khanh Pham told THE BEE.

Pham, one of the conveners the workgroup, added that the group’s focus is on “inner Powell”, which they define as the 95 blocks from the Ross Island Bridge east to Interstate 205.

Other Oregon legislators, including Sen. Kathleen Taylor (SD 21), Rep. Rob Nosse (HD 42), Rep. Mark Gamba (HD 41) have been meeting with representatives from Cleveland High School, Creston Elementary School, and Kellogg Middle School, “To hear ODOT, PBOT, and TriMet share what they are doing to make Powell safer, and bring clearer vision for safely moving people through the area,” as Pham put it.

At this most recent meeting, attendees were settling in as CHS Principal Jo Ann Wadkins shared her interest in the group with THE BEE. “I think this project is a phenomenal model for how a community can come together around safety.

“Not only safety for students, but safety for the community,” Wadkins said. “This is why we have community representatives here, elective representatives here, and more important, we have representatives from ODOT, PBOT and TriMet here.”

“As you know our school is at the intersection where a very tragic accident that impacted our community took place,” Wadkins continued. “So, to come together to look at not only what immediate changes we can make – but also to develop a vision that we have for our schools in our community, around safe travel.”

Rep. Rob Nosse pointed out to THE BEE that the district he represents extends “along Powell Boulevard, up to about 50th Avenue. It’s important for me to be here, because this is a road that so many of my constituents use. Because I’m the representative for this area, I have an obligation help try to figure this out.”

When a total of 24 people were seated around the table, the meeting was called to order. Attendees examined exhibits that were passed around the table. They went on to discuss ODOT’s estimates of $115 to $185 million to upgrade the section of S.E. Powell Boulevard west of I-205 to a “state of good repair”. They also discussed immediate safety changes they’ve identified that could address key objectives, which would cost approximately $15 to $30 million. No decisions were made at the meeting, but there will be more meetings of this sort as time goes on.

Although this citizen group has no direct way to affect of the work of transportation agencies, it’s clear that they’re working with these agencies towards making S.E. Powell Boulevard a safer highway.



At the “National Prescription Drug Take Back Day” held in at the former Southeast Precinct building on East Burnside, Portland Community Safety Division’s Jacob Brostoff (formerly Inner Southeast Portland’s “Crime Prevention Specialist”) pointed the way to the drug drop-off point.
At the “National Prescription Drug Take Back Day” held in at the former Southeast Precinct building on East Burnside, Portland Community Safety Division’s Jacob Brostoff (formerly Inner Southeast Portland’s “Crime Prevention Specialist”) pointed the way to the drug drop-off point. (Photo by David F. Ashton)

‘Drug Take-back Day’ restored in Southeast Portland

By DAVID F. ASHTON
For THE BEE

After having been suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic – along with the disbanding of the “Crime Prevention Office” by the City of Portland’s “Office of Community & Civic Life” – Portland’s participation in the United States Drug Enforcement Administration’s “National Prescription Drug Take Back Day” returned on Saturday, April 22, at the former the Portland Police Southeast Precinct building’s parking lot on East Burnside.

Since Portland’s first “National Prescription Drug Take Back Day”, back on August 29 of 2009, Southeast Portland residents had been enjoying a safe and secure way to get rid of unwanted or expired medications.

PPB Neighborhood Response Team officers returned to help out this year, but the event now is actually coordinated by the City of Portland’s Office of Management and Finance’s “Community Safety Division”.

“We are collecting both prescription and nonprescription drugs and medications today,” explained Rocio Garcia, of that city department.

Garcia pointed out that the Community Safety Division’s “Safe Blocks Program” has been assigned some of the safety efforts formerly provided by Southeast Portland Crime Prevention coordinators, before the city abolished Crime Prevention. 

“Today, we’re taking in pills, capsules, patches, and other solid forms of prescription drugs and over-the-counter medicines, for safe disposal,” Garcia told THE BEE. “It’s important to do this now – because, first of all, it’s been a couple of years since we’ve done this – and it’s really nice to get out and to meet the community, and provide a service to help Portland residents safely dispose of these drugs.”

It’s important to get the disused medications out of out of neighbors’ homes, for a two reasons, she said:

  • To reduce access to drugs that are expired, or not being used, thus avoiding unauthorized use, especially among the youth.
  • To make sure that discarded drugs don’t go to a landfill, and don’t find their way into our water system and contaminate it.

 “The data we collected today shows that we had 129 people drop off medications, and we filled 20 boxes with them – so approximately 800 lbs. of prescription and non-prescription medications were collected,” Garcia commented. “We do owe a big thanks to all of our city partners – especially the East Precinct Officers! We couldn’t have done it without them.”



Firefighters covered the solar photovoltaic electric cells with opaque plastic sheeting, so they stop producing potentially dangerous electricity in sunlight, while people are on the roof fighting the fire.
Firefighters covered the solar photovoltaic electric cells with opaque plastic sheeting, so they stop producing potentially dangerous electricity in sunlight, while people are on the roof fighting the fire. (Photo by David F. Ashton)

Chewed solar-panel wires set Foster-Powell roof aflame

By DAVID F. ASHTON
For THE BEE

When the owners of a 1912 home at 3804 S.E. 62nd Avenue, in the Foster-Powell neighborhood installed a 5.55 KW photovoltaic (PV) solar cell array on their roof in 2022, the residents probably looked forward to saving some money on their electric bill.

However, a nesting squirrel may have cost these neighbors more than their potential savings. The rodent received the blame when a fire broke out on the roof on Thursday, May 18.

At 1:35 p.m., Portland Fire & Rescue units were dispatched to the home. Within four minutes, both Woodstock Fire Station 25’s Engine and Ladder Truck Companies had arrived.

While some crew members made sure the residents were safe, and checked for fire inside the house, the Ladder Truck firefighters climbed onto the roof, dragging a water line with them, and assessed the situation.

One of the first things firefighters did on the roof was cover the banks of roof-mounted PV solar cells with thick, black plastic sheeting. At the same time, others on the roof carefully sprayed the burning roofing with water 

“This was an exterior fire associated with the solar panels,” confirmed PF&R Public Information Officer Rick Graves to THE BEE later.

“[When being struck with sunlight], the solar panels are always energized,” Graves explained. “You can interrupt the [electric] feed back into the building’s electrical system from the ground, but as long as the photovoltaic panels are intact – and as long as there is available light – they will capture the sunlight and the photovoltaic effect converts this energy into electricity.

“Thus, the only way to eliminate the production of potentially hazardous DC voltage to firefighters on the roof, is by eliminating the sunlight on them, thus the tarps,” Graves explained. “The cause of the fire looks to be as a result of a squirrel nest; likely the rodent chewed through the wire, or wire housing, which then ignited some debris.

“It is a good idea to make certain that the area around, and under, the solar panels remains clear of flammable debris, such as leaves and other products that can catch fire,” he advised.



At the “Earth Day Fair” welcome table at the Learning Gardens Laboratory, we encountered PSU Grad student Kris Jensen, and PSU Learning Garden Lab Senior Capstone student Dolly Niederlander.
At the “Earth Day Fair” welcome table at the Learning Gardens Laboratory, we encountered PSU Grad student Kris Jensen, and PSU Learning Garden Lab Senior Capstone student Dolly Niederlander. (Photo by David F. Ashton)

‘Learning Gardens Lab’ hosts Brentwood-Darlington ‘Earth Day Fair’

By DAVID F. ASHTON
For THE BEE

The annual “Earth Day Fair” returned to the Learning Gardens Laboratory, across the street from Lane Middle School, in the Brentwood-Darlington neighborhood on Saturday, April 22.

Canopies sprang up around the garden, shading exhibitors, craft areas, and a food stand; families were taking advantage of the pleasant spring weather to stroll about the area.

“It feels like we’re back up to full capacity after the pandemic,” observed Faculty Coordinator Sybil Kelley, an assistant professor in the Leadership for Sustainability Education Program at Portland State University.

“Last year, we were able to bring back a smaller version of the fair; but now we’ve returned to being able to invite the whole community into the Garden,” Kelley told THE BEE.

The 25 attractions at the fair included arts and crafts, and many activities for kids. “We have several organizations here that are focused on climate change, sustainable gardening, and waste reduction – in addition to offering a book and a clothing exchange – and a lot of different things are all at this one event!” exclaimed Kelley.

In addition to the students and faculty helping out, the fair was presented by some 30 volunteers from the community, and various exhibitor organizations.

“Hosting this fair is important to the mission of the PPS Learning Garden Laboratoryy, because here, we focus on education for all,” explained Kelley. “Here, institutions of higher education are working alongside kindergarten through 12th grade students. We have a reciprocal relationship with the neighborhood and the community.

“Our Earth Day Fair is a way to ‘give back’ by having this free event, open to everyone,” Kelley went on. “Best thing, for me, about this, is – relationships! Being in the community; being around some really amazing people. It’s great.”

Discover more about the Learning Gardens Laboratory by visiting their website – https://www.pdx.edu/education/lgl

And to get a feel for the fun at the fair this year, here’s a brief and exclusive BEE video! 

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Yellow and red police tape marks off the spot where officers found a stabbing victim inside a Subaru – pulled partly into a driveway, on S.E. Flavel Street – in the late afternoon of Friday, May 5th, across the street from Flavel City Park.
Yellow and red police tape marks off the spot where officers found a stabbing victim inside a Subaru – pulled partly into a driveway, on S.E. Flavel Street – in the late afternoon of Friday, May 5th, across the street from Flavel City Park. (Photo by David F. Ashton)

Stabbing closes down area near Southeast school

By DAVID F. ASHTON
For THE BEE

A couple of hours after the students were dismissed for the day at Whitman Elementary School on May 5th, East Precinct officers received a report of a stabbing in the 7500 block of S.E. Flavel Street and responded to investigate.

For hours that evening, this major street was barricaded for several blocks in both directions as seven officers confirmed and investigated the crime. An officer pointed out to THE BEE that the area of the incident was about a half-block east of Whitman School’s parking lot, on the north side of the street, across from the path entrance into Flavel City Park 

There, a green Subaru was pulled off the roadway partly into a driveway, facing north.

“Responders located a victim with several stab wounds; he was alive but unconscious,” Sheppard continued. “The victim [in the green car] was transported to a local hospital for medical treatment,” Portland Police spokesperson Lt. Nathan Sheppard later told THE BEE.

Reportedly the stabbing victim has since been recovering, but is still in medical jeopardy, Sheppard remarked. “Officers weren’t able to locate a suspect; the case is open, and under investigation.”

If you have information about this attack, which might have occurred in the car while it was underway, please email your tip to – crimetips@police.portlandoregon.gov – and refer to Case No. 23-117155.



Firefighters from far and wide swiftly knocked down a wall fire in this home in the Brentwood-Darlington neighborhood, on May first.
Firefighters from far and wide swiftly knocked down a wall fire in this home in the Brentwood-Darlington neighborhood, on May first. (Photo by David F. Ashton)

WallFire damages Brentwood-Darlington home

By DAVID F. ASHTON
For THE BEE

A residential fire in an owner-occupied home on Monday evening, May 1, swiftly brought a host of firefighters to 5920 S.E. Henderson Street, at 7:44 p.m.

Within minutes of the dispatch, PF&R Lents Engine Company 11, Woodstock Fire Station 25’s Ladder Truck Company, and Mill Park’s Ladder Truck 7 converged on the location. As crews pulled up, one of the lieutenants radioed back to dispatchers reporting heavy smoke coming from the garage and out of the front door of the house.

Some firefighters pulled water lines to supply Engine Company 11 truck which served as the pumper, while others searched the house for any victims. Also arriving at the fire were crews from Clackamas Fire District #1’s Engine Company, providing “mutual support”, primarily in the form of extra personnel.

It took only 13 minutes for crews to get the fire knocked down. Firefighters then checked both inside the house and in the attached garage, looking to soak any remaining embers.

“This was a fire in the wall between the garage and the living quarters, with smoke rising and collecting in the attic,” PF&R spokesperson Rick Graves told THE BEE a few hours later.

“Initial reports indicated there was fire in the attic space, but it was later determined to be smoke that had collected from the small fire in the wall of the main level of the home,” Graves continued. “The fire was accessed in the wall, and was extinguished without the flames spreading throughout the structure. There was no need to cut open up the roof for any ventilation.”

Apparently, the occupants of the home escaped without injury, and the residence was considered still habitable. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.



At the March 9th murder scene on S.E. Powell Boulevard, a Portland homicide detective stood in heavy rain at the crime scene, amid a web of police crime-scene tape.
At the March 9th murder scene on S.E. Powell Boulevard, a Portland homicide detective stood in heavy rain at the crime scene, amid a web of police crime-scene tape. (Photo by David F. Ashton)

Suspect arrested in March murder on Powell Boulevard

By DAVID F. ASHTON
For THE BEE

On the very rainy evening of March 9, East Precinct officers were called to a shooting in a transient camp along S.E. Powell Boulevard near 74th Avenue. Subsequently, Powell was closed to traffic while homicide detectives investigated the homicide in the Foster-Powell neighborhood.

The victim was identified as 39-year-old Rene Ramirez Martinez; his body was found on the parking strip along the highway. It was subsequently revealed that 38-year-old Jorge Gomez Montejano had been identified by the Homicide Detectives as a suspect in this case, and a warrant had been issued for his arrest.

On May 2nd, Montejano was arrested by the US Marshal’s Service and booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center (MCDC) on Felony charges of Murder in the Second Degree, and Unauthorized Use of a Weapon. He is still in Inverness Jail, without bail.

If you have additional information about this case, contact Detective Steve Gandy – Stephen.Gandy@police.portlandoregon.gov; or call 503/823-0449. Alternatively, you can contact Detective Jeff Pontius – Jeffery.Pontius@police.portlandoregon.gov, or call 503/823-0433. Be sure to refer to Case No. 23-62542 if you do.


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