Curse of the food carts

There was another murder in downtown Portland today, a shooting. It happened just as the evening rush hour was beginning, although there's probably not much of a rush down there any more. The O says it was road rage. The shooter, in a black Mercedes, reportedly turned himself or herself in, elsewhere downtown. The perp also shot a second person, who was taken to a hospital.

The killing took place near 10th and Alder, which would put it right in front of the new Ritz-Carlton, where the popular old food carts have been replaced by laughable high-rise schlock. Or just across the street therefrom. Funny how none of the media mention the Ritz. One story identifies the nearby Jake's Grill by name, another the moribund Target store in the Galleria.

It took first responders too long to get there, or at least so it seemed to a woman who sat with the victim as he died. Katherine Cook at Channel 8 went down to the scene and talked to people:

"It's traumatic. It's horrific. And our government needs to do something to clean this city up and help not let this happen again," the witness said through tears.

Another woman at the scene, Alyssa Isenstein Krueger, said she was walking out of her doctor's office when she saw a man on the ground who had been shot in the leg and was screaming. 

"People were trying to help him, calling 911," she said. She said she then walked around the corner, and saw another man lying on the ground and someone was helping him. 

"They were looking for a doctor, so I ran around screaming, 'Is there a doctor?''' she said. "I ran into Jake's (Grill), screaming, 'Is there a doctor?'"

Isenstein Krueger said she was there with the man when he died from his injuries.

"It was taking forever for the emergency people to come. And then I just sat there and held his hand, and he passed," she said.

Anyway the lull is over, that's for sure. Chalk it up as Homicide No. 58 for the year.