Sandy’s police chief said one officer suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was taken to the hospital by Life Flight. He did not say how many others were killed or injured.
SANDY, Ore. — A standoff in Sandy has ended, police said Sunday night, following a massive emergency response to a shooting in a residential area that left several people dead.
Neighbors described a harrowing and chaotic experience, punctuated by rapid gunshots, before police locked the suspect into a residence.
During a brief news conference Sunday night, Sandy Police Chief Patrick Huskey said his officers and Clackamas County deputies responded to reports of a domestic disturbance and shooting in the 39500 block of Evans Street just before 4 p.m.
When police arrived, they were shot and returned fire, Huskey said. A Sandy police officer suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was transported to the hospital by Life Flight helicopter. Huskey said the officer is in stable condition and is expected to survive.
As for other casualties, Huskey said only that “multiple victims died” without elaborating. He emphasized that this is an active investigation and no further information can be disclosed at this time.
Huskey confirmed that the suspect in the shooting surrendered and was taken into custody, and there is no longer any threat to the area.
“This is a traumatic event for our community and the Sandy Police Department, and I know many people are grieving,” Huskey said. “I ask everyone in our community to keep the victims, injured officers, family, friends and all first responders in their thoughts tonight.”
Huskey said the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office and the Clackamas County Major Crimes Team are currently handling the investigation and are processing the crime scene.
“The area is unsafe”
As events unfolded Sunday afternoon, fewer answers were forthcoming. The Sandy Police Department first notified the public of an ongoing incident on Evans Street in a brief post on social media just before 5:15 p.m.
“The area is not safe and we ask everyone to stay away from the area. Residents in the area should lock their doors and stay indoors. More information will be released later,” the agency said in its initial post.
During the incident, the surrounding blocks of Evans Street were filled with emergency vehicles, including multiple ambulances, fire trucks and numerous law enforcement vehicles from multiple agencies. KGW saw multiple armored police vehicles near the home at the center of the standoff.
Sandy residents Mai and Lennon said they were returning home from a family member’s home when they saw the commotion.
“We just saw all the SWAT cars, all the firefighters, all the ambulances, and we were like, ‘Wait, what’s going on?'” Mai said. “So we drove around and saw more.”
They learned the incident happened just a few blocks away from Mai’s home.
“I thought it was crazy,” Mai said. “I called my dad and I said, ‘Make sure the door is locked,’ and he said, ‘Yeah, I heard all the shooting in our house.'”
Wren, who lives nearby, first heard the gunshots and then saw part of what happened as the incident moved toward her.
“I heard gunshots in my bedroom, rapid gunshots, over and over again, probably over 8 or 10, and then I looked outside and I heard people screaming,” she said.
Lane said when she looked out her apartment window, she saw a man running up the hill with something in his hands. With him was someone else – a nobody, she said. Ren saw others running in that direction.
“They were saying, ‘Go, go, go,’ and the police were yelling, and about five minutes later the SWAT team came,” Lane continued. “I yelled out the window and asked him if everything was okay, ‘There’s been a shooting,’ and he told me to come down and said there was an active shooter in the building.”
Wren said the suspect appeared to be on the move, going to different locations in the neighborhood. Eventually, it was all contained to one area on Evans Street.
“I just started getting a bunch of phone calls from family members. ‘They’re like, are you okay? Are you okay?'” Lane said. “It was just, you know, kind of a spur of the moment thing, and about an hour and a half later… I thought, ‘OK, I’m done’… because I was told he liked to kick in doors and stuff, so I put a couch over my door. I didn’t want that. I didn’t want that.”
After 7 p.m., Sandy police told the public that a suspect was “confined to the residence.” Then, just before 8pm, KGW staff saw a man being taken into custody at the scene. Soon after, Sandy police confirmed a suspect was in custody and the shelter-in-place order had been lifted.
