2 injured in shooting in northeast Portland; bullets hit nearby home

PORTLAND, Ore. (KPTV) – Police say two people were shot and injured early Sunday in northeast Portland when an altercation ended in gunfire, and nearby apartments were damaged by ricochet fire.

Marx Phillips told FOX 12 he woke up around 2 a.m. to a strange noise outside his apartment on the corner of Northeast Sandy Boulevard and Northeast 48th Avenue.

“I thought it was a car backfire,” Phillips said. “There were probably about 10 to 12 pops.”

It was only when he entered his bathroom that he noticed dust in the air and then a ball lying on the floor.

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“You can see where it went through, you can see the hole that went through my kitchen into my bathroom, and you can see where it hit the wall of my bathroom door and then went into the pipe,” Phillips said, referring to a sprinkler pipe that runs along his ceiling.

On Sunday, a hole in his second-story window was still visible, as well as nine other markings in the bricks on the side of the building, all numbered by police.

“I have my cat and everything, she's playing on the windowsill, so I'm just glad we're both OK,” Phillips said.

Portland police said they learned a fight had broken out at a nearby store and shots had been fired outside in the street. Two people were hit by the gunfire but are expected to survive.

Several neighbors, including Chris Schneider, remember another shooting a year ago near the intersection and was shocked when he heard the gunshots that night.

“I got here about 20 minutes later and there were a lot of police and I could see shell casings all over Sandy,” Schneider said. “This is unacceptable and I don't know how we can enforce this – people are treating the neighborhood like a playground.”

Phillips has only lived there for six months and says he loved the location, but a close call with a bullet could be the turning point.

“It's a little stressful, I definitely don't know if I want to stay in this apartment anymore,” Phillips said. He plans to ask if he can move into a neighboring apartment in the same complex that doesn't face the street.

Police said no one had been arrested as of Sunday afternoon because the suspects fled before officers arrived.

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