 Teondre Bonner
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Surveillance cameras at Peninsula Park Community Center provided critical evidence that helped lead to an arrest in the July 12 shooting at the park.
Mayor Sam Adams, Police Chief Mike Reese and Portland Parks Director Mike Abaté held a press conference in Peninsula Park this morning to announce they have made an arrest in the July 12 shooting in the park, with more to follow.
The City also plans to increase park security, by adding rangers, two-way radios and more surveillance cameras.
"This is an example where people's privacy was protected but they (surveillance cameras) helped solve the crime," Adams said.
Teondre Bonner, 20, is currently in custody in Thurston, Wash., awaiting extradition to Oregon on charges of attempted murder and unlawful use of a weapon. Thurston County SWAT Team arrested Bonner at 11 p.m. Thursday Aug. 2, at a motel in Lacey, Wash.
"That violence would happen anywhere in the city is unacceptable," Adams said. "But the fact that violence would happen in a park or community center with kids present anywhere in the city is totally, totally unacceptable. It's outrageous. It outraged me. It outraged every Portlander."
Investigators also served search warrants at two locations in Portland, Aug. 3, and one location in Washington County. The addresses searched were 919 Southeast 162nd Avenue, 1534 Northeast 86th Avenue and 6800 Southwest Scholls Ferry Road, Apt #40. Reese said the arrest came from information discovered during the investigation, and more arrests are expected.
Gunfire rang out across Peninsula Park, just after 4 p.m., July 12. The park was filled with children and families when two men in a blue van drove up and fired shots at two men on the sidewalk. One of those men then shot at the van. When the van sped off, the two men ran into the community center.
Reese said the shooting was part of an ongoing conflict between two gangs and he highlighted the work of the gang enforcement team. Since the announcement of Operation Safe Summer on June 14, he said: "We've contacted 568 gang members. We've had 58 gang members arrested, and we've seized 25 guns."
Immediately after the shooting, park staff saw the men running into the center but had no way to contact staff inside. Art Hendricks, Parks Safety director has recommended nearly $250,000 of spending to improve security, including security cameras, radios and park rangers.
Parks Director Abaté says the department hired 10 additional seasonal rangers last week and is requesting more, for a total of 38 seasonal rangers. The department already has distributed two-way radios to parks staff.
About half the parents whose children were enrolled in summer parks camps based at the park pulled their children out of the program.
