Portland police fatally shoot man in Pearl District confrontation

Update: Woman was held at knife-point in Pearl District shooting, police say

Police fatally shot a man Sunday morning in a confrontation in a building in Portland’s Pearl District.

Officers responded just before 10 a.m. to a report of a disturbance involving a man with a knife and an explosive device, Portland Police spokeswoman Lt. Tina Jones said. They confronted a man in the stairwell of an office and parking building, where an altercation broke out, Jones said. She said officers used less-lethal weapons before shooting the man.

No explosives were found at the scene, and police declined to say whether the man was armed.

A woman who was also in the stairwell suffered injuries and was taken to a hospital, police said. It’s unclear how her injuries were sustained. No police officers were injured.

Emergency dispatch logs show officers were dispatched at 9:45 a.m. on a report of a disturbance in the 1300 block of Northwest Lovejoy Street. Cars and police tape lined 1331 N.W. Lovejoy St., a building known as The Lovejoy that includes offices, stores and a parking garage. It houses the Pearl District Safeway store.

Mike Connors, a lawyer who works in the building, said he was arriving at work around that time when he heard people arguing in a stairwell. He called 911 and yelled into the stairwell that he had done so.

He said he heard a man’s voice shout back, “I have a knife, a bomb and a hostage. Bring it on." Connors said he left to wait for police to arrive and didn’t witness the subsequent shooting.

“I was kind of in shock,” he said.

Nearly 30 police cars were on the scene just before 11 a.m. as the investigation got underway. Mayor Ted Wheeler and Police Chief Danielle Outlaw both arrived at the scene a short while later.

Larry Viscarra was working in the Safeway when he heard an evacuation notice on the store’s intercom. Once he arrived at an evacuation point across the street, he said he saw police officers speaking with a bloodied woman in front of the building.

“Calls involving armed and threatening subjects are complex and quickly evolving,” Outlaw said in a statement. “This investigation is in the beginning stages and we ask for patience as it unfolds.”

Streets surrounding the incident were blocked off for much of the day and remained partially closed as of 4 p.m.

-- The Oregonian/OregonLive

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