Stop the Violence rally held in Portland after rise in gun violence

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - On Saturday, a Stop the Violence rally was held in downtown Portland. Pastor Corey Pritchett, of Worldwide Deliverance Church and Better Portland, organized the event. He said he is urging the community, especially young people, to get involved in the conversation surrounding gun violence in Portland.

“We are concerned about our city and the gun violence,” said Pritchett. “We want to bring the community together to help end gun violence and make a better Portland. Part of ending gun violence is dealing with the anger and dealing with the hurt in peoples’ hearts. We’ve had over 30 homicides so far this year. We want to bring the community together, to not be afraid and to take action.”

This comes after a deadly night in Portland. PPB responded to 4 shootings in 2 hours. Victims in three of the shootings were taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, while the 4th shooting is being investigated as a murder-suicide according to police.

Better Portland and several area churches are working with the city and partnering with local non-profits to address the gun violence in the city.

“We want to organize a de-escalation hotline that the community can call when they is a violent situation that is about to happen,” said Pritchett. “Second thing is to also coordinate police ride-alongs. The third thing is to get people off the streets. We know a lot of shootings this year have come out of the houseless community. In June we want to launch a Citizens Guns Task Force as well.”

According to the Portland Police Bureau, there have been over 475 reported shootings so far this year, with over 145 people injured by gunfire and 31 people killed.

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