Portland, Oregon. (coyne) – Three teenagers – including an 18-year-old now charged as an adult – face attempted murder charges following a murder. Filmed in Rocky Butte A high-speed chase ensued.
This is just the latest incident involving youth violence in Portland. Sgt. Kevin Allen of the Portland Police Bureau called the case heartbreaking.
“It’s a tragedy that children who should be playing with their friends and doing what kids do were involved in such a serious crime,” Allen said. “It’s not only shocking and disturbing, it’s sad.”
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DeAngelo Smartlovit, 18, pleaded not guilty Friday to attempted murder and weapons charges. During his first court appearance, police identified a 17-year-old driver as a 16-year-old passenger who faces similar charges in juvenile court.
A shooting occurred in Rocky Butte Wednesday night, police said. Police attempted to stop a car leaving the area, but investigators said the driver fled even with spike strips deployed.
“The driver continued to drive at a high rate of speed in excess of 90 miles per hour in an attempt to flee the officers,” Allen said.
The pursuit ended near Northeast 148th Street and Halsey after officers used a PIT maneuver. Detectives recovered three handguns from the vehicle.
No victim was found at the scene, but police later confirmed a man was taken to a Vancouver hospital in connection with the shooting with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound.
“The kids involved, at least from the suspect’s perspective, were involved in criminal group-related activities,” he told KOIN 6 News. “A lot of us are in uniform, we’re parents of kids. Some of us have kids that age – it’s hard for us to really understand how they could have been involved in something so serious.”
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While police say youth violence is nothing new, they acknowledge that when guns are involved, the consequences can escalate quickly. Allen noted that the department’s Focused Intervention Team works to identify at-risk populations before crime turns into violence.
“They’re trying to find out who, many times it’s children, are involved or potentially involved in dangerous activities,” he explained. “They try to find them before they commit a crime because once the crime is committed, it’s going to be worse.”
The arrests occurred weeks later Another group of teenagers charged In connection with the murder of grandfather and minister Kevin Cooper in Northeast Portland.
Multnomah County Juvenile Services Director Dr. Kayla Armstrong-Romero told KOIN 6 News, “We are seeing an increase in the number of youth who are carrying weapons or being victims of firearms.”
Armstrong-Romero said juvenile crime has spiked in Multnomah County, especially in the East County.
“I think about my own teenage years, being able to go to the mall, ice skating, and all kinds of different prosocial activities,” she said. “It seems like there have been fewer of them lately, so the kids sometimes get bored and do things they shouldn’t be doing.”
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With detention costs more than $600 a day, she said the solution is not jail time but investing in community programs that promote tutoring, after-school activities and reintegration services, including community treatment initiatives (CHI).
“For the youth we refer specifically to CHI as well as other service providers, we find that 86 percent of them don’t reoffend within the first year. So we know these services are effective,” she said.
She added, “The investment opportunity is not ‘soft on crime.’ It’s really the answer to the problem of violence… If you want to stop the problem and not just put a Band-Aid on it, you have to invest in it.”
Smartlovit is expected to return to court for arraignment on March 9.
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