PORTLAND — A 61-year-old man opened fire on police from inside his home Sunday, wounding one officer at the front door and another at a nearby park responding to the scene, authorities said.
Two officers were conducting a routine welfare check at the home after getting a report that the man was despondent and threatening to commit suicide by taking pills, Portland Police Chief Mike Reese said.
The officers knocked on the door and were met with gunfire, he said. One of those officers, a nine-year veteran, received minor injuries from shrapnel, and the two retreated to call for help.
Another police officer who responded to the scene was at a nearby park when he was shot by the suspect with a scope rifle, Reese said. He was hit in the lower abdomen and underwent surgery at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland. He was listed in critical condition Sunday night, police said.
“There’s really nowhere to hide in that park,” said police spokesman Pete Simpson.
Other officers were forced to shoot at the duplex in order to rescue the wounded officer, a 13-year veteran from the bureau’s east precinct. He was pulled to safety “almost immediately,” Reese said.
Negotiators talked the man out of the home, where police found a handgun, shotgun and scope rifle in the house, Reese said. The man was taken into custody.
The house is a duplex in a gradually gentrifying but still industrial area of southeast Portland. The shooting took place blocks from the iconic Aladdin Theater, and surprised Portland’s Sunday brunch crowd.
Juan Carlos Munoz said he heard gunshots at about 9:20 a.m. He dressed quickly and stepped outside, where he saw a police officer take at least one bullet in the park.
“He wasn’t moving too much, but he had a vest on,” Munoz said. “There was a lot of shooting, but they pulled him out pretty quickly.”
