The morning after police fatally shot a guy, the front yard of a modest, single-family home with light green siding in Southeast Portland was littered with dog toys
black rubber gloves, and an overturned planter. The property in the 100 block of Southeast 126th Avenue has a trampoline, a swing set, and a child’s bicycle in the rear.
As he watered his plants in his front yard just before 8 pm Wednesday, Walker heard a succession of loud bangs that lasted for around five minutes. It wasn’t until his neighbor stooped down
and said, “that’s a gun, come inside,” that he realized they were fireworks. 911 operators heard gunshots over neighbors’ calls to the Bureau of Emergency Communications, according to police.
Officers from the Focused Intervention Team, formed at the beginning of the year in an attempt to limit gun violence, arrived at the site around 8:15 p.m.,
They haven’t said anything else yet. Through the little crack in his window, Walker saw his next-door neighbors, who lived three homes south, launch rockets into the sky.
“He certainly wasn’t going after anyone,” Walker added. It occurred to me that “Aaron is attempting to take his own life by cop.” After the police identified themselves,
After that, there was silence. Homicide detectives spent most of the night enforcing a blockade of the roadway as they investigated the police shooting.