‘We can’t lose anymore of our kids’: Gresham man mourns son after deadly shooting

GRESHAM, Ore. (KPTV) - A Troutdale man has been arrested in connection with the shooting death of 28-year-old Corey Monroe, according to Gresham police.

Monroe was shot in the Rockwood Plaza shopping mall just after midnight on Friday and died in the hospital shortly after. Sunday, police said they arrested 33-year-old Daniel Hensley and charged him with second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon.

Investigators have not said what led up to the shooting or whether the two men knew each other.

Monroe’s father, Larry, told FOX 12 that his son took a date to a bar in the plaza and then went outside to meet someone after he got a phone call.

“He met the car, apparently the footage shows he leaned into the car, they shot him and then drove away,” Larry said.

The father said he has not reviewed the surveillance footage of the shooting himself. Larry said he is thankful an arrest was made, and he has already forgiven his son’s killer.

“I have forgiven him; my son is in heaven, and he is no longer fighting,” he said. “I have so much anger, I have so much revenge, and I can’t do that. We have to put it in God’s hands.”

Larry told FOX 12 that God and his church are holding him together through the devastation. He struggles to make sense of the record number of shootings in Portland and Gresham.

“We have to figure out how to make this stuff stop, we have to get together as humans and stop this, we can’t lose any more of our kids,” he said.

His wish going forward is to prevent more senseless gun violence and get more youth off the street and down better, more productive paths.

“I don’t know how to do that. I’m reaching out to everybody, anybody who is willing to help, we’ll take any advice,” he said. “Even if out of my son’s death only one person gets saved, then my son’s death wasn’t in vain.”

Hensley will be in court on March 22.

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