Portland police are asking the public to help identify a teenager suspected of robbing a convenience store at gunpoint on East Burnside Street, 22 days after the holdup sent officers scrambling through a Hazelwood neighborhood with no arrest to show for it. The suspect, described as a Black teenage boy or young man, allegedly brandished a gun inside the store, prompting officers to search the surrounding streets.
East Precinct officers responded to the report of an armed robbery in the 10100 block of East Burnside Street just after 3:30 p.m. on September 30, according to KOIN. Police later identified the location as the Burnside Market & Deli at 10128 E Burnside Street, in the Hazelwood neighborhood, as reported by East PDX News. Police said no one was hurt in the holdup, according to KPTV.
Arriving officers did not locate the armed robber despite searching the neighborhood and nearby TriMet MAX Blue Line tracks, the same East PDX News report states. No arrests had been made after hours of searching that evening, per the outlet's account. Portland's Major Crimes Unit detectives later took over the investigation and are now working to identify a potential suspect, according to FM News 101 KXL.
A Distinctive Look, But No Name Yet
Investigators described the suspect as wearing a black jacket with gray sleeves and an “A” emblem on the chest, per the same account. East PDX News reported an additional detail that stood out among witnesses: the suspect also wore a distinctive black top hat during the robbery.
Detectives have released images of the suspect and are asking anyone with information to submit a tip or email [email protected], referencing case number 26-285793, the station's report notes. No further description of the suspect's age or identity has been released.
Part of a Wider Pattern of Convenience-Store Holdups
The East Burnside case lands amid a string of convenience-store robbery investigations across Portland this year. In March, the Portland Police Bureau asked for the public's help identifying a suspect tied to a series of robberies that targeted convenience stores in October 2025, according to a bulletin from the Portland Police Bureau. In July, the bureau announced arrests in a separate convenience-store case in which multiple suspects robbed a store at gunpoint and one struck an employee in the head with a pistol, per a bureau update.
The city's convenience stores have also been the target of larger, organized robbery schemes. In August, a 55-year-old Portland man, Timothy Ray Jones, pleaded guilty to 13 charges connected to more than 30 robberies at Plaid Pantry stores across the city, as reported by The Oregonian. Investigators tied Jones to robberies spanning an 11-month stretch from March 2025 through January 2026, with stolen goods worth more than $38,000, the same outlet reported. Jones was expected to be sentenced to 80 months in prison, with more than 50 additional charges set to be dismissed under his plea agreement.
Portland police continue to rely on the public for leads in the September 30 robbery, with the case number 26-285793 standing as the only link between a still-unidentified teenager and the answers detectives are seeking.
