A 16-year-old boy was shot on Saturday afternoon during a classic car show in Gresham, according to local police. The incident took place around 3:15 p.m., with Gresham Police dispatch receiving multiple calls about a shooting in a parking lot located at the 1800 block of Northwest Fairview Drive. When officers arrived, they discovered the wounded teenager and saw that a window of a nearby business and a truck had also been hit by gunfire.
In a scene described by witnesses as chaotic, Nick, a Flying Pie Pizzeria employee, recounted to KGW how a man "took off running down the sidewalk right past our door as we were locking it and shooting back toward this truck, then took off into the Black Bear Diner." Officers applied a tourniquet to the injured teen, who has not been identified but is expected to survive.
Megan Caron, owner of one of the damaged vehicles, shared with KOIN 6 News how she mistook the initial gunshots for something benign. "I thought it was maybe a car backfiring or a firecracker or something. Then I heard a series of shots then a little break, and then bam-bam-bam-bam," Caron said. She recalled turning, seeing a gunman, and ducking for safety.
The panic spread quickly among attendees and nearby businesses. Black Bear Diner employees acted fast to shelter people inside the restaurant as the chaos unfolded. "I looked over here and there’s probably seven plus adults - which you don’t see very often - running towards the restaurant. And I heard ‘pop pop pop’," an employee recounted during an interview with KPTV. In an effort to keep patrons safe, employees instructed everyone to get down and closed all the blinds. Despite the fear-tagged environment, the employees lamented, "It's a scary feeling, seeing people actually run scared," indicating that this level of violence is out of character for the Gresham they know.
Police continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the shooting, and no suspects have been apprehended at this time. The community and Gresham Police are calling for any witnesses or individuals with information to come forward as they piece together the events of that harrowing afternoon.
