PORTLAND, ORE. Man arrested after shooting; 2 sought

Associated Press

PORTLAND, ORE.

A 22-year-old man arrested in connection with a shooting outside an alternative high school in Portland had ties to a gang, as did two of the victims, police said Saturday.

Sgt. Pete Simpson said Lonzo Murphy is a “person of interest” in the Friday shooting, but officers aren’t prepared to say whether he was the gunman, Simpson said.

Authorities are trying to find two other people connected to the shooting near Rosemary Anderson High School. Three were hospitalized, including a 16-year-old girl who was critically wounded, and a fourth person was grazed by a bullet and treated at the scene.

Simpson says two male victims have ties to gangs. The victims are students or in affiliated job-training programs, authorities say.

“The nexus of it had to do with gang activity,” Simpson told reporters. “The proximity to the school was happenstance, if you will. It doesn’t sound like it had anything to do directly with the school.”

Investigators received information that led them to look for Murphy, Simpson said. He was pulled over early Saturday and arrested on a parole violation. Officers found a handgun “consistent with what we were looking for related to this case,” Simpson but officers can’t say yet whether it was tied to the shooting.

Police identified the hospitalized victims as Taylor Michelle Zimmers, 16, who was upgraded from critical to serious condition Saturday; David Jackson-Liday, 20; and Labraye Franklin, 17. Police said they were in fair condition. Olyvia Batson, 17, was treated at the scene after a bullet grazed her foot.