GRESHAM, Ore. (KOIN) — Jesus Ortiz, his girlfriend and his brother were sleeping Tuesday night in the Gresham townhome they’ve leased for about a year when shots rang out in their neighborhood.
The next morning, Ortiz — who’s recovering from knee surgery — said he was “hobbling down the stairs” when he saw a hole in the dry wall. Then he saw another hole directly across from it. Then he looked outside and saw his car windows were shattered.
“I can see the bullet casings,” the 22-year-old told KOIN 6 News. “So I just called the cops and had them come out.”
Evidence of 4 shots were found at the home in the Rockwood neighborhood near the 17000 block of SE Ankeny. Two bullets hit his car, one bullet hit the garage door frame and the 4th went through the garage door, through the garage wall, through the living room and ended up in the wall stud near their back patio door.
“I mean, it sucks. We were liking living here and everything was going pretty good and this happens and it just makes you feel unsafe.”
At first he thought the shooting was someone “being stupid. No one’s out to get us. But as I saw the block, no one else got shot at or messed around like that, like, oh, sheesh, maybe I should get out of here.”
The shooting happened around 11:30 p.m.
“A lot of people in the neighborhood heard it pretty clearly. If we didn’t have to work so early the next morning we might have been out in the living room doing something, feeding the dog, taking him out. It could have actually hit us.”
One of those neighbors who heard the shots was Selena Yazzolino.
“I had just gone into my garage and shut it and heard 4 gunshots, and then went running outside which probably wasn’t too smart of me,” Yazzolino said.
She didn’t see anything, but other neighbors reported hearing a car drive off.
“It was just kind of like, pow pow pow pow. So it was just right in a row, fast shooting,” she told KOIN 6 News.
Ortiz, who is a technician at Intel, said he’s puzzled by the shooting.
“I think the most confusing thing is how it seems it was just targeted towards the car and just this house and nothing else happened on the block,” he said. “It’s pretty concerning and that’s probably the scariest part.”
He also said he has no idea who would do this.
“I think my Number 1 guess would just be someone who’s being a hoodlum, who thinks it’s funny to do something like that, to shoot at someone’s car at night.”
Yazzolino also said the shooting doesn’t make sense. “They are wonderful, quiet neighbors and they were surprised and sleeping through the whole thing.”
Ortiz is glad no one was actually hurt, but they’re now staying with relatives for the time being and are thinking of moving.
“We definitely aren’t going to stay here, at least for a little bit until it calms down,” he said. “Maybe they catch the person and it ends up being some hoodlum and we’ll feel a little more safe after that, I guess.”
Anyone with information about this is asked to call the Gresham Police Department at 503.618.2318.
