Portland police say an officer is injured and a suspect is dead after a shootout with police on Friday in North Portland.
Police say that the Drug Enforcement Administration was serving a warrant on a man in an apartment building on the 1600 block of North Willis Boulevard. Police say the man was armed and had been threatening to shoot officers. At that time, additional officers were called, and the Special Emergency Reaction Team and Crisis Negotiation Team responded to assist.
Officers cross the street at the scene of a police shootout at an apartment building on the 1600 block of North Willis Boulevard in North Portland on August 27, 2021.
Jonathan Levinson / OPB
Officers evacuated nearby apartments, and by 7:30 a.m. police say the suspect fired the first shot and two officers from the SERT returned fire. Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell said one PPB officer was shot in the hip during the shootout. Lovell said the suspect died at the scene and it wasn’t immediately clear who shot him.
“The police did not fire any rounds prior to the suspect firing rounds. In this situation there were rounds being fired through walls ... being fired by the suspect,” Lovell said.
PPB said the wounded officer has been released from the hospital. Lovell did not identify the wounded officer at a press briefing Friday afternoon but said the officer is a 14-year veteran working out of the Bureau’s North Precinct.
On Saturday morning, PPB identified the officers who fired their weapons as Joshua Howery, a 20 year veteran of PPB, and Jake Ramsey, a 4-year veteran.
“The officers are on paid administrative leave until the completion of the investigation,” according to a press release.
Lovell said while it’s not unusual to assist other law enforcement agencies, PPB had not been notified about the DEA warrant prior to being called to assist at the scene. “We do have times where we assist other law enforcement agencies. Typically there is planning or preparation that go into these and then sometimes things don’t go as planned.”
“That will be a part of conversations we have as we debrief and figure out what actually transpired and see if any steps were missed, things we can fix in the future to deconflict these things and communicate better,” he said.
The area remained closed by police midday Friday as they continued to investigate and speak to community members.