Portland community responds to four homicides in 24 hours

PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland Police made three arrests after four homicides in a 24-hour time period over the weekend.

This spanned from early Friday morning into Saturday, including two stabbings in Old Town, a shooting in Northeast, and a shooting in Southeast.

Sergeant Kevin Allen said from investigative units to patrol officers, it was all hands on deck to address the spike in homicides.

"Every one of these deaths is significant, but the truth is when they all happen in such a short period of time it compounds, the impact compounds on all of us here in the community," Allen said.

Scott Kerman is the executive director at the Blanchet House. Kerman said he's feeling shaken after learning about two stabbings in Old Town in such a short period of time.

"We take this very seriously because we want to make sure that people who come to us whether it’s to volunteer, our staff, our employees, people who come to us for meals know that they’re coming to a safe and supported location," he said.

The Blanchet House works with the homeless community in Old Town. Kerman said violence is just another concern for those living on the street.

"It just underscores, for us, the terror and the trauma that our unhoused community and our residents in Old Town are facing," he said.

Allen said PPB is not planning any special missions at the moment, but they are evaluating staffing to see where resources are needed.

"We all know that we have a limited number of officers, so we have to deploy them as best we can to the areas that are in most need, but we also know that the city of Portland has a gun violence problem, it has a violence problem, it has a traffic fatality problem," he said.

Several local leaders responded to the violence on social media. Mayor Ted Wheeler tweeted that he sends his condolences to the loved ones left in the wake of this family. He also expressed gratitude for Portland Police and the arrests they made.