A man was found dead on a sidewalk in the 700 block of Southeast 12th Avenue early Saturday after Portland police responded to a shooting call at 2:34 a.m., with the suspects already gone by the time officers reached the scene. No arrests have been made.
Central Precinct officers who responded found the victim, described only as male, deceased on the sidewalk, according to Portland Police Bureau records. Homicide detectives assigned to the case, numbered 26-252563, closed off Southeast 12th Avenue between Morrison and Alder streets, along with Southeast Morrison Street between 11th and 12th avenues, while they processed the scene. Investigators are asking anyone with information to call 503-823-0479 or email [email protected].
A Neighborhood Split Down the Middle
The shooting happened right along Buckman's internal dividing line. According to City of Portland neighborhood profiles, the 1.15-square-mile neighborhood is effectively split at 12th Avenue, with a light-industrial commercial corridor to the west and a predominantly residential stretch to the east. Buckman itself is bounded by East Burnside Street, Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard, Southeast 28th Avenue, and the Willamette River. The closures placed around the crime scene fell near Good Girl Bar, a nightlife spot at Southeast 7th Avenue and Morrison Street that Hoodline profiled in June.
Recent Police Activity in the Same Blocks
This is not the first time law enforcement has focused on this stretch of Buckman in recent weeks. Just over a week earlier, on August 21, Portland Police Focused Intervention Team officers ran proactive patrols in the neighborhood as part of a “Summer Cool Down” initiative, a mission that ended in a car chase, three arrests, and five seized firearms, the bureau reported. The Focused Intervention Team, which supports homicide and shooting investigations, was established in late 2021 alongside an independent Community Oversight Group to carry out targeted gun violence deterrence work.
Two weeks before that, on August 15, homicide detectives investigated a separate fatal shooting that began near OMSI and ended with a deceased victim found in a vehicle at Southeast MLK Jr. Boulevard and Southeast Alder Street, on the edge of Buckman — a case Hoodline covered in its report titled One Dead, Two Hurt in Hosford-Abernethy Shooting Near OMSI Waterfront, which noted that incident spanned two crime scenes nearly a mile apart. It is not the only precedent in the immediate area: in August 2024, homicide detectives investigated the fatal shooting of 45-year-old Donny M. Calabaza near Southeast Washington Street and Southeast 9th Avenue, just three blocks from Saturday's scene, according to KGW-TV. No immediate suspect was detained in that case either.
A Citywide Drop, With a Summer Spike
The Buckman killing arrives against a backdrop of sharply lower gun violence citywide this year, even as the season has brought a notable exception. Ceasefire Portland reported that homicides were down 56% year-to-date in 2026 compared to 2025, and down 68% against the city's three-year average, a decline officials tied to gun violence intervention strategies launched in 2023. Yet KGW-TV reported that Portland recorded 59 shooting incidents in June, the highest single-month total for gun violence in the city since January 2025, with police leaders pointing to warmer weather and summer gatherings as contributing factors.
If suspects are eventually identified and charged, Oregon law sets a steep bar for sentencing in intentional killings. Under Oregon Revised Statutes § 163.115, intentional criminal homicide is prosecuted as second-degree murder, carrying a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment with a 25-year minimum before parole eligibility under Oregon's Measure 11. No suspect information has been released, and detectives have not said whether Saturday's shooting is connected to the recent gun seizures or prior violence in the area. The circumstances that led to the gunfire remain under investigation.
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