Multnomah County DA also urges the Biden administration to take action against gun violence.
As gun violence continues to make headlines in Portland, Mayor Ted Wheeler said he supports moving more Portland Police Bureau resources to gun violence response. And Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt was one of 46 prosecutors nationwide that urged the Biden administration to take action against rising gun violence.
At a regional gun violence response coordination meeting Friday morning, Feb. 5, Wheeler said he supports the deployment of a sergeant, four officers and two detectives to be on call to respond 24/7 to shootings to assist in crime scene processing.
Portland protests shape District Attorney Mike Schmidt’s young tenure: Now what?
His decision not to prosecute most protest-related crimes drew fire from President Trump and praise from reformers. What’s happened since.
Updated on Feb 02, 2021;
Published on Jan 30, 2021
Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt on Sat., Jan 15, 2021. Schmidt, 39, campaigned as a reformer and won 77% of the vote. His approach to protest-related arrests has won praise and encountered resistance. “You re not damaging anything, you re not lighting things on fire, then you re not the person we re going to prosecute,” he said. “There is no public safety value to prosecuting that person because a year-and-a-half from now when it actually goes to trial, even if we convicted you, what good did we do? Oregonian staff/Dave Killen Dave Killen
The Multnomah County District Attorney's office has charged an Oregon City man with murder, among other crimes, for driving his car into pedestrians and bicyclists in a rampage across Southeast Portland Monday. Paul Rivas, 64, faces a total of 14 charges for killing one woman and injuring six others with his Honda Element in an area spanning SE Stark and SE Belmont, between Laurelhurst Park and SE 17th. Along with second-degree murder, Rivas is charged.
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Murmurs: Union Members Get Dibs on Vaccines In other news: Mayor staffs up. Vaccination clinic at Portland International Airport. (Erik Robinson / OHSU) Updated January 28
UNION MEMBERS GET DIBS ON VACCINES: As Portland-area public health officials warned Jan. 26 it could still take months to vaccinate Oregonians in the state s top priority group for shots, Oregon Health & Science University launched a drive-thru vaccination clinic at Portland International Airport. For now, the clinic is by invitation only and the invites went to home health care workers in Service Employees International Union. Home health care workers are a diverse population who often come from communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, says OHSU spokesperson Tamara Hargens-Bradley. The workers were selected because they re o
Portland police name suspect in hit-and-run that killed 1 and injured 9
Police have named the suspected driver of the vehicle involved in a hit-and-run incident that killed a woman and injured nine other people in Portland, Oregon, on Monday.
Authorities identified the driver as Paul Rivas, 64, of Oregon City, according to a statement from the Portland Police Bureau.
Rivas is being held at the Multnomah County Detention Center, the statement said. He is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday.
The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office told CNN that it was “in the process of screening the case … to make a charging decision by this afternoon’s court appearance.”