Someone fired a gun in a parking lot outside of a basketball game at Portland’s Franklin High School Saturday night.
Portland police say one juvenile suffered a minor injury that appeared to be a graze wound.
Around 7:30 p.m., an officer working an overtime detail at the high school heard shots fired near the building. Responding officers found gunfire evidence in the parking lot on the east side of the building — including a semiautomatic handgun.
The basketball game between Franklin and McDaniel high schools ended early, and officers helped game attendees leave the gym through another exit.
Franklin High School’s east parking lot was closed as police investigate.
During their investigation of the incident, police detained a 15-year-old boy, who was off-campus and far from the shooting, on an unrelated arrest warrant. He was arrested for illegally carrying a firearm and booked into a juvenile detention facility.
This is the fourth shooting to occur near a Portland high school in recent months. Two students were injured in an Oct. 18 shooting near Jefferson High School. On Nov. 14, an Jefferson student was leaving the school in a car and was injured in a drive-by shooting nearby. Then on Dec. 12, a student was injured in a shooting near Cleveland High School.
Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero said Sunday in a letter to the Portland Public Schools community that counseling support will be available at schools districtwide on Monday.
Guerrero said PPS has been increasing security outside school basketball games. And he said the district is working with the city of Portland and the police bureau to step up neighborhood patrols around schools.
Cleveland High School Principal Jo Ann Wadkins also sent an email Sunday about the incident, and also mentioned that Portland police have a suspect in the Dec. 12 shooting near the school.
Wadkins said a community forum, co-hosted by the PTA, is planned at the school at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 18, to discuss the work the district, Cleveland and other community and city leaders are doing to prevent gun violence.
