PORTLAND, Ore. — A traffic stop near a Portland shopping mall erupted in gunfire early Wednesday evening, leaving a man dead and a police officer wounded.
The man was not immediately identified as police closed off several blocks near the Lloyd Center mall, just across Interstate 5 from the Rose Garden arena that is home to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Detective Mary Wheat, the police spokeswoman, said a man inside the car began struggling with the officers after the traffic stop about 6:30 p.m. before he pulled out a handgun and shot one of the officers.
She said officers returned fire and the suspect was shot and killed at the scene.
Wheat said the officer who was shot suffered a nonlife-threatening wound and was recovering at nearby Legacy Emanuel Hospital.
Two witnesses told The Associated Press they saw the shooting as they were driving toward the intersection where the man had been stopped.
“His car is right here,” said Brent Maxson, pointing from behind yellow tape to a side street about two blocks from the mall, just in front of the Temple Baptist Church.
“There were two police cars in back of him, and the police have their guns drawn telling him to put your hands where we can see them,” Maxson said.
He said he was in the line of fire so he quickly drove into a fast food restaurant parking lot to get out of the way.
Karen Moreschi, who said she runs the Sonbeam Daycare Center at the church, was driving up when she saw police with their weapons drawn.
“I heard and saw gunfire,” Moreschi said. “I saw an officer go down, stiff legged, and moved himself back to the curb, away from the vehicles. Then he eventually was assisted back into the middle street behind a car, a police car.”
Both Moreschi and Maxson said they heard about six to eight gunshots.
“My first thought was the day care,” Moreschi said. She stopped in the middle of the street and briefly directed traffic and some bicyclists away from the scene before she ran inside to make sure everybody had gone home, then turn off the lights so nobody could see inside.
The shooting occurred on the day that Mayor Sam Adams fired Police Chief Rosie Sizer and replaced her with Mike Reese, commander of the Portland Police Bureau’s Central Precinct.
Adams visited the hospital to check on the injured officer.
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