Residents who live near Sellwood Riverfront Park were stunned as they watched a stream of Portland Police vehicles converging on the park late on Friday evening, July 12.
“It’s not only all the cop cars coming in, one after another, that’s astounding – but also, look at the hundred or more teenagers, walking and driving out of the [park’s] parking lot!” a local named “Sam” remarked to THE BEE, as he was heading for the park to walk his dog.
Indeed, upon our arrival, there were still about 60 people – ranging from young teenagers to those in their early 20s – either walking out of the park, and eastward along S.E. Spokane Street – or else waiting for someone to pick them up in the parking lot.
Meantime, more of the 22 Police Cruisers dispatched for a reported shooting there at 11:16 p.m. were still pulling into the park. Many of the officers and detectives drove in along the sidewalk next to the restrooms. There they parked, with headlights on, at the north end – near the path leading into a wooded area from which so many young people were emerging.
The official word THE BEE received from the PPB was that “when officers responded to a report of someone shot in the park, they found a victim deceased at the scene.”
Some of those walking out of the cordoned-off woods looked shocked. One male was carrying an inebriated or hysterical female out along the path and into the parking lot.
A person walking out told THE BEE that the “party in the woods” had grown exponentially, as new arrivals sent out messages by text, Instagram, and TikTok to their friends – inviting them to join the gathering on that warm summer evening.
According to a teenager who’d been interviewed and then released from the wooded area, a number of witnesses had been detained by police for questioning near the spot of the reported shooting.
As heavily-armored PPB officers discontinued their search in the woods for an active shooter, other officers began moving the yellow tape, which restricted the area, further and further south – until news reporters were restricted just to the parking lot.
“The suspect or suspects left the scene before police were called, and no immediate arrests were made,” was all a PPB official would say at the time.
On Monday, July 15th, the Portland Police revealed that the person killed in this shooting had been identified as 20-year-old Asher Ethan H.K. Mendes, of Sherwood on the west side of the Portland metro. The Medical Examiner determined that Mendes had died of “homicide by gunshot”.
Detectives believe that a great many of the large number of people at the secluded gathering, at the time of the shooting, left without speaking to officers – and they hope more of the attendees will now volunteer what they saw while they were there. Officers feel that there is currently no further danger to the public at Sellwood Riverfront Park.
If you have information about this incident, contact Detective Michael Schmerber via email at – Michael.Schmerber@police.portlandoregon.gov, or call him at 503/823-0991; or Detective Shaye Samora via email at – Shaye.Samora@police.portlandoregon.gov, or call 503/823-0768. If you do contact them, please refer to Case No. 24-174011.
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