Credit: Reed Andrews
Last Thursday—in happier times.
  • Last Thursday—in happier times.

Normally, tonight would have been the first official Last Thursday event of the year on Alberta. The mayor’s decided the May shindig should go, so streets weren’t closed off like normal. That hasn’t prevented mayhem.

Police report three people were shot at roughly 5:19 pm (cops have corrected this to 6:51 pm), as people gathered for a more low-key, less sanctioned version of the monthly arts festival. The official police bureau line at this point has no information about their conditions, but people on the scene report that they’re expected to survive.

Also, randomly, local rapper Glen Waco, a visible figure in the Don’t Shoot PDX demonstrations over the past year, was apparently arrested, the O‘s Casey Parks reports.

How did the folks who’d flocked to Alberta Street respond? Partly with indignation that quirky ice cream flavors weren’t as available as they should be.

This is more bad news at a time Portland police are already dismayed over shootings as the weather warms up. That’s not a new thing—it seems there’s a similar message every year—but it’s true incidents cops classify as gang-related are up over 2014.

On Tuesday, I asked PPB spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson about the shootings this year, asking whether curbing that violence was maybe more a priority than pushing homeless people out of the Central Eastside. He waffled, saying the bureau had to be responsive to the community, and it’s gotten a ton of complaints about visible homelessness.

But he also noted that the blatant, broad-daylight aspect of recent shootings has been a concern for cops. This evening’s incident isn’t going to help.

Update, Friday 7 am: Police now say that the victims in the shooting were two 15-year-old boys and a 25-year-old woman. None of the wounds were life-threatening.

One reason—among many, many reasons—not to open fire at Last Thursday? Spectators who don’t give a damn if you’re arrested (police consistently rue the “no snitching” culture that they say prevents them from solving gang crimes). Spectators at the scene took pictures of the alleged shooter fleeing on foot, and cops caught up with him at NE Going and 22nd. They also found a gun.

As for Glenn Waco and the other guy who were arrested? Police say they were “were interfering with the investigation after the fact.” The two men were arrested for “interfering with a peace officer,” a catch-all that allows cops to arrest people for everything from being homeless to whatever Waco (real name Loren Ware) and co-defendant Marcus Cooper were doing. They’ve also got charges for disorderly conduct, harassment, and resisting arrest.

I'm a news reporter for the Mercury. I've spent a lot of the last decade in journalism — covering tragedy and chicanery in the hills of southwest Missouri, politics in Washington, D.C., and other matters...

21 replies on “Three People Were Just Shot At Last Thursday—Or What Little Of It Exists This Month”

  2. “asking whether curbing that violence was maybe more a priority than pushing homeless people out of the Central Eastside.”

    That is a false dilema if I’ve ever seen one.

  3. Maybe, Stank. But the bureau often bemoans it’s lack of manpower for “gang enforcement” but is pulling in officers from all three precincts to work the sweeps.

  7. “On Tuesday, I asked PPB spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson about the shootings this year, asking whether curbing that violence was maybe more a priority than pushing homeless people out of the Central Eastside.”

    How, exactly, would you suggest they focus on preventing this? Arresting people in hoodies? Stop and frisk those who look like they could be in a gang, like brown and black people with baggie pants? Maybe we could have more events where gang members can come together as part of a community….oh, wait.

  8. Thank you Charlie Hales for not blocking off Alberta St. and pulling the police from this month’s Last Thursday, which most people did not learn about until showing up at the event last night. Your decision made the event unsafe for the community. The blood from this shooting is on your hands! #PortlandLivesMatter

  9. The cops were there and the event was cancelled. If Hales is responsible for anything, it’s letting this unpermitted shitshow go on for as long as it has.

  13. Woodstock worked, and Vortex worked, but nobody seems to think Altamont anything but a fluke.

    Altamont Free Concert – Death of Meredith Hunter
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qTKsylrpsg

    http://rockandrollstories.blogspot.com/2010/07/end-of-60-altamont-speedway-free.html

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vortex_I

    Woodstock 69 The Lost Performances The Band, Canned Heat, Joan Baez, Crosby Stills Nash, Janis
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQMIIdiStpc

  14. GUN VIOLENCE involves guns. Gang-Violence is six brutal Policepersons beating on one handcuffed unarmed individual (as seen on raw unedited videos)

  16. @sgtgrumbles and @econoline Marcus is an activist, and was acting in that capacity when arrested on this charge. I cannot speak to an apparent loss of temper, but the charges against him this time are the amorphous charges the police use to detain people they dont like. i dont think I saw ‘resisting arrest’, a favorite…..

  18. Yes it’s the same guy who beat the guy for having his car towed (shocker!). As to the question of where are the parents, did you see their response in the courtroom per the o live article yesterday? His dad (who was arrested on attempted murder a few years ago) showed no apology and instead tried to fault police for talking to the kid before getting a hold of him and was most concerned about getting the kid some money in prison. As if they didn’t have multiple witnesses, a confession and ballistics evidence. Apples don’t generally fall too far.

  19. Portland is falling prey to the success of the gang racketeering cases of the mid 90’s. The offspring of those gangsters are now trying to get their own street cred. And their parents are not teaching them to stay away from violence and guns, only to keep their mouths shut around the police.

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