PORTLAND, Ore. – Portland police arrested a 22-year-old man early Saturday in connection with a shooting that wounded three students outside an alternative high school.
The Friday shooting appears to be gang-related, police said. Witnesses told authorities there may have been a dispute outside Rosemary Anderson High School just before the shooting occurred at a street corner. The victims are students or in affiliated job training programs.
The assailant and two other people fled, and the injured trio went to the school for help, police said. A 16-year-old girl was critically wounded, and a 17-year-old boy and 20-year-old man were hospitalized in fair condition. Another girl was grazed by a bullet.
A student, Oliviann Danley, 16, told The Oregonian she saw a boy run into the school and yell, “Oh my God, did I just get shot?”
Hours later, officers stopped a vehicle driven by Lonzo Murphy around 1:30 a.m., police said. They found a handgun, and he was taken into custody on a parole violation. Additional charges are pending, police said.
Police searched an apartment about five blocks east of the shooting.
Gang investigators “feel comfortable saying this is a gang-related shooting based on some of the people involved,” Sgt. Pete Simpson said. Police believe the shooter has gang ties.
Simpson said police were still gathering details on the reported dispute outside the 190-student school that serves at-risk students who were expelled or dropped out or are homeless or single parents.
Police identified the hospitalized victims as Taylor Michelle Zimmers, 16, who was in critical condition; David Jackson-Liday, 20; and Labraye Franklin, 17.
Sierra Smith, a 17-year-old student, told The Oregonian she saw one of the male victims getting help from a teacher inside the school.
“He was laying on the ground. He had blood coming out of his stomach,” she said. “It was scary.”
Gang violence in Portland isn’t a new phenomenon. Some of the violence occurs between rival gangs, but bystanders have also been hurt.
“We’ve made a lot of progress in addressing the gang problem, but we haven’t eradicated it,” Mayor Charlie Hales said Friday. “Today’s really a sad reminder that it’s still with us.”
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Associated Press writers Terrence Petty, Gosia Wozniacka and Tim Fought also contributed to this report.
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