Powellhurst-Gilbert resident addresses gun violence after another shooting

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) – One person was injured Wednesday in a shooting on Southeast Powell Boulevard, according to the Portland Police Bureau.

Officers responded just after 2:45 p.m. to the shooting at Southeast 130th Avenue and Powell Boulevard.

A spokesperson for the PPB has corrected the initial descriptions of the victim’s injuries, now saying the women’s injuries could have been deadly after a bullet grazed her cheek and went through her nose.

Tami “Boots” White who lives in the Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood says it’s just another Wednesday. “It’s gotten so bad, I don’t see how it could get worse. I’m hoping it gets better,” White said.

FOX 12 spoke with White about a deadly shooting less than a mile from her house two weeks ago. Since then, gunfire took the life of another person and injured one more in two separate shootings.

“I don’t know where this is all coming from. I don’t know if there’s a very negative element living somewhere that no one is talking about,” White said.

According to Portland police crime data that only goes up until May 2022. There have been four homicides and 35 weapon violations in the Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood since the start of the year.

White had experienced that gunfire steps from her front door.

“It was someone that just drove by. I had a neighbor down the way with a bullet hole in their siding from that night and the police also talked to them. That could have been my house.”

She said she’s now mindful every day gunfire could ring out near her house.

“So you’re out watering your yard and if a car is going to fast you do kind of take note and I do have to say, ‘Do I need to hit the ground?’ I don’t want to have to live like that but I’m not selling.”

White, a lifelong Portlander, said it’s heartbreaking to see her city in this state. Ahead of Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s expected emergency declaration on gun violence, White wants him to hear this:

“I think he needs to send a message to Portland, and to this side of Portland, that this is going to stop and what his plan is for it. It’s nice to have this declaration but please lay out how this is going to work and what you’re going to do.”

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