A Portland police officer shot and killed a man who was armed with a knife along Southwest Broadway in downtown Portland after reports he had stabbed two others in the city’s downtown Thursday afternoon, according to police and witnesses.
The shooting occurred along Southwest Broadway, between Harvey Milk and Washington streets, near Hotel Lucia and Hotel Vintage, in the city’s central core just before rush hour.
A man working at Hotel Lucia said he heard two gunshots.
Two delivery workers in an Amazon Prime van were stopped on the corner on Southwest Broadway just prior to the shooting. They said they had just made a delivery, returned to their van and found a man who was naked, yelling and running around with a knife.
“He had swiped at a few people,” one of the drivers said. Then when police responded to the scene, they confronted the man and shot him when he charged at police, according to the Amazon driver, who did not want to be identified by name.
Portland police said the first responding officers saw two men being stabbed in the 400 block of Southwest Broadway and confronted the armed suspect and shot him.
Officers provided emergency first aid to the suspect, who was taken by ambulance to a city hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. Police did not identify him Thursday night.
A box cutter with a broken blade was located at the scene.
Two men who were stabbed suffered serious wounds but are expected to survive, police said.
Dozens of Portland police, firefighters and a couple of ambulances raced to the scene of the reported assault with a weapon at 4:34 p.m.
Nearly 20 officers were on scene within minutes, records showed.
“I know that every available officer in (Central) Precinct responded to this call, code 3,” Portland police Sgt. Kevin Allen said, meaning with lights and sirens. “It was definitely a major, major priority call for us.”
Portland police and fire paramedics located the stabbing victims in the area of Southwest Broadway and Washington Street.
Near there, police confronted a man armed with a knife and one officer fired shots, striking him, near the sidewalk outside Hotel Lucia, according to police and witnesses.
Allen said he did not know the ages of the stabbing victims.
“Officers interrupted a violent attack in progress, and I’m gratified to hear that the victims are going to recover,” Police Chief Bob Day said in a statement. “I’m saddened by the events here in downtown Portland.”
Dann Reid, a San Francisco resident who said he came to Portland to spend five relaxing days, said he heard gunshots from his hotel room off Southwest Washington Street.
Police blocked off at least three blocks of Broadway, from Southwest Harvey Milk Street to Alder Street, and other cross streets, from Southwest Fifth to Park avenues, as detectives and forensic criminalists were called to respond to document the multiple crime scenes and interview witnesses.
“Our crime scene covers several blocks and so we have a pretty significant portion of downtown Portland blocked off for the ongoing investigation,” Allen said. He acknowledged that the criminal inquiry will impact many visitors and businesses.
The closed-off traffic had business representatives from The Benson Hotel and restaurant El Gaucho asking officers posted on the street corners how long they expected before the streets would be opened to traffic.
Officers said they expected the streets would be closed for several hours.
“This is a huge impact ....and we’re sensitive to that,” Allen said. “We appreciate the community’s patience.”
Three hours after the assaults and shooting, pedestrians trying to head back to their hotels or check in were escorted to the locations by hotel representatives stationed alongside officers and beside the cordoned-off streets.
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