A 26-year-old man serving a 14-year sentence out of Clark County for two shootings in Vancouver has been charged with murder for a homicide near a Portland high school in 2011.
On Thursday, Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill announced that a two count secret indictment was unsealed after Shawn Degail Crawford Jr. appeared in court. Crawford faces charges of murder with a firearm and first-degree manslaughter, according to a release from the district attorney’s office.
The indictment alleges Crawford intentionally caused the death of 25-year-old Deondrae Clark on Oct. 21, 2011.
The Portland Police Bureau reported at that time, officers were in the area of North Haight Avenue and Emerson Street around 10 p.m. when they heard multiple shots. They found Clark suffering a gunshot on a street corner.
According to The Oregonian, Clark was on the ground in the midst of a large group of people. Earlier that night, he’d been denied entry to the Jefferson High School football game two blocks away.
Officers set up a perimeter around the crime scene and used canines to search the area. And the bureau’s Forensic Evidence Division collected multiple pieces of evidence during the initial investigation, but investigators made no arrests.
Clark was taken to a hospital and died a short time later.
The indictment against Clark’s alleged killer was filed in late February but remained sealed by the court for most of the year.
Crawford was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center on Wednesday after being transported from the Washington State Department of Corrections.
When he was 24, Crawford was sentenced to 14 ½ years in prison for two shootings within a month in Vancouver. Court records say he shot a man out of jealousy during a New Year’s Eve party on Jan. 1, 2015, at a residence in the 7200 block of Northeast 101st Avenue in Vancouver.
Crawford struck the victim in the thigh and stomach area, court documents said. He opened fire because the young man hugged his girlfriend.
While gang detectives were investigating that incident, Crawford was arrested in connection with a different shooting Jan. 30, 2015.
He was one of three males who fired at least 12 rounds at a group of people sitting on the porch of a house in the 2300 block of Neals Lane in Vancouver at about 2:45 p.m. the same day, according to a probable cause affidavit. One of the bullets struck a 16-year-old boy in the knee.
Prosecutors said at trial that Crawford had been affiliated with multiple street gangs and that his father was killed because of his own gang involvement. The defense attorneys denied the claim.
Clark, the Portland homicide victim, had ties to the Rolling 60s gang, according to the Oregonian.
Crawford appeared by video Thursday before Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Leslie G. Bottomly.
Portland police are continuing to investigate the nearly decade-old case and said no other information was available.
