PORTLAND HAS QUIETED down since seven shootings rocked the
city in seven days in July, but three shootings still occurred last
week—one gang related, one mysterious, and one carried out by the
police. A 21-year-old man was shot at the K&C Food Market on N
Killingsworth on Thursday, August 20, prompting a gang outreach push in
the area to prevent the incident from escalating into further
violence.
In an unrelated incident, a Southeast Portland man, Joseph Lawrence
Erzen, was shot dead when bullets penetrated the wall of his bedroom
while he slept early Saturday, August 22. Police say they are unsure
whom the actual target may have been and are continuing to investigate.
In another unrelated incident, a police officer shot a robbery suspect
on Monday, August 24, after he fled a Northeast bar and hid in a shed
near SE 172nd and Pine. The Multnomah County SWAT Team and Portland
Police SERT Team were called to the scene because the suspect was
armed. The unnamed suspect is now in stable condition recovering in a
local hospital, according to the police. RACHAEL MARCUS
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The state is finally considering tossing out archaic laws that ban
advertisements of happy hour drink prices. Since 1985, the 16,000 bars
and restaurants licensed to serve alcohol in Oregon can advertise cheap
food but not cheap booze during certain hours of the day. The rules
have persisted, unchanged, for 24 years despite a lack of research
showing that restrictions on such ads actually cut down on dangerous
drinking behaviors. In a meeting last week, the Oregon Liquor Control
Commission agreed to review the policy and will consider rewriting it.
SARAH MIRK