Well, good evening and we continue
with breaking news out of North
Portland where police say they
are dealing with shots fired,
a suspect with a gun and neighbors
being told not to go outside.
Within the last 15 minutes or so.
A fire has also sparked in a
building that is now surrounded.
Let's go right out to Catherine Cook.
She's standing by live for us.
Catherine, this is a quickly
developing situation.
What can you tell us about
what's happening there?
Laurel, this has certainly escalated quickly.
As you can see behind my right shoulder,
the shrunk Riverview Tower is on fire.
That apartment is where the
activity has centered around over
the last two or three hours.
We're told this all started with
shots fired in the neighborhood.
We want to show you some video
from just a few minutes ago of a
firefighters responding to the fire.
Fortunately, their station is literally
one block away from this building.
I watched as firefighters.
Appeared to put on some sort of a
tactical vest before heading in again.
This started with reports of
shots fired from that apartment.
No word on whether anyone was injured,
but police immediately deployed
tactical units.
We watched as robots responded.
They put up drones to see if
they could get a better look,
and I actually saw the suspect
appear on the balcony about an hour.
He appeared to drop something out the window,
a paper of. Some sort.
And then again, Laurel and David,
very quickly after that,
it appeared that somebody,
likely the suspect,
set the apartment on fire and
the fire has grown rapidly.
I spoke with someone and asked if the
apartment building has been evacuated.
He said he believes so.
They're starting to.
And at this point, though, again,
no word on whether or not the
suspect has been taken into custody,
but it is certainly a very
rapidly deteriorating situation.
I'm watching now as another.
Fire truck is responding to the scene again.
The fire station is right next door to us,
but they're bringing in more
crews from other fire stations.
This is an apartment building,
11 stories tall.
Again, it's the shrunk Riverview Tower.
No idea about how many people were
inside or if they've been evacuated,
but certainly a scary situation.
We'll send it back to you.
David
and Laurel. Yeah.
Catherine, a quick question for you here.
11 stories here and do it.
Looking a little bit at this building.
Looks like it's home to seniors
and people living with.
Disabilities, 100 plus units there.
Just in some of the video
you were playing for us,
we can see somebody on a balcony a
few units down and over from the fire.
Are you seeing people on
balconies calling for help?
Are you seeing an active fire
response outside the building
trying to get people out of there.
What's it looking like?
Right now, well, unfortunately, David,
we can't get close enough to the building to
see if people are being evacuated or not.
It's been cordoned off because again,
this was an active shooter situation.
So what I'm seeing from the face of
the building, we're looking at here,
nobody else out on the balconies and again,
just firefighters in in this
area trying to get in to see what
they can do to put out the fire.
Clearly it looks like they have made
some headway in there, in fact.
Yeah, you can see if you.
Don't know if we can zoom in or not,
but firefighters are out there
on the balcony now.
It looks like they have put out the fire.
That's good news.
But again,
no word on where the suspect is or
any conditions of that person or
any other injuries in the building.
But I I would certainly hope that
if anybody was in the building
that they had been evacuated.
Though if they were,
we would not be able to see them on
the street because these streets in the
neighborhood are taped off by police.
David.
Well, it is a relief to see that
those fires, the flames have
been extinguished there to see.
The white smoke instead.
I know you'll keep us updated, Catherine,
on a dramatic and a fluid situation there.
We'll check back with Catherine later
and let's talk about Portland police.
We have an update tonight on the
decade long debate over body cameras.
And while the city and police union
agree officers should wear them when
it comes to how they use that video,
they are still at odds.
Mike Benners in The Newsroom tonight.
Mike, we knew the city and union were
at some sort of critical impasse
here and now we've got the details.
Yeah, we do, David.
The Union wants officers to
be able to review the video.
Before writing reports and being
interviewed by supervisors.
And that's for all incidents,
even deadly force incidents.
The city, however, says no to that.
They say officers can only review
video ahead of reports and interviews
for non deadly force incidents.
Regardless,
until both sides come to an agreement,
Portland remains the largest
city in the US where its police
force is not wearing body cams.
The conversation has become
frustrating. Sergeant Aaron Schmaltz
is the president of the
Portland Police Association.
He says when it comes to.
Body worn cameras the union and
the city of Portland agree on just
about every aspect of the program.
But he says the two sides disagree
on the reviewing of recorded video.
My concern is that that that dialogue
has become very strange. I mean, Schmaltz
says the union wants officers to be
able to review video before writing
a report or being interviewed by
a superior after all incidents,
even deadly force incidents.
We just want to get it right.
We want to make sure our officers know
what questions they need to answer that
they're able to take all the available.
Veterans and provide a comprehensive kind
of package of information and give that
to the public so we have just one good,
clean explanation of what happened.
The city, however,
thinks an officer's right to review
video stops at deadly force incidents,
and the city of Portland is
not alone in that belief.
Salem PD just launched its
body camera program this week,
and as Chief Trevor Womack explained
on Thursday's edition of the story,
Salem officers can look at body
Cam video after all incidents.
Except deadly force incidents,
we don't investigate ourselves, of course.
We have a process here where an outside
agency conducts that investigation.
They would be in charge of
that investigative process,
and our District Attorney as well.
And their position is that
officers would not view that video
before that interview occurs.
For example, the ACLU agrees.
It argues that allowing an officer
to view video of a deadly force
incident before their interview
could encourage the officer to lie,
for instance,
if an officer watches video beforehand.
They would then know before the interview
what was and wasn't captured on camera.
Sergeant Aaron Schmautz,
however,
doesn't see it
that way. You know,
if you take somebody who's been
involved in a critical incident,
who's been involved in this very
stressful kind of high temperature deal,
and then immediately ask them to
just kind of spit out what happened
without collecting all evidence,
you run into significant issues.
Alright. With the city of Portland
and the police union at an impasse,
an arbitrator now steps
in to settle the dispute.
And this part of the process
could take months.
We'll of course stay on top of it.
In the meantime,
we can tell you the Vancouver
Police Department will be rolling
out its body Cam program next week.
David, thank
you, Mike, appreciate that update.
Well, classes were cancelled today at Tigard
High School because of a shooting threat.
Police eventually determined,
they say that the threat was not credible.
Authorities say though the tip
an anonymous tip came into safe.
Morgan last night,
that is the program created for anyone to
report and respond to student safety threats.
Now police say the tip was along the
lines of someone hearing there was,
quote, going to be a school shooting
tomorrow and quote now police said
they are looking into whether the
threat could be connected to a
fight on Thursday at the school.
At this point they say they have identified
the students involved in that fight.
The state of Montana, along with
several fossil fuel industry groups,
is suing the city of Portland.
The federal lawsuit takes aim at some of the.
These policies that limit the
storage and transport of oil and gas.
Our environmental reporter Kyle Williams
joins us now with the details. Kyle,
well, this isn't the first time
Portland's been sued over this policy,
but it is the first time the city
has been sued in federal court.
In 2016, the city banned new development
and expansion of fossil fuel facilities
that handle more than 2,000,000 gallons.
And that's important because with a
deep water port, multiple rail lines
and access to oil and gas pipelines,
Portland is a major international
shipping hub.
But the code amendment provided.
Exceptions for local use,
like fuel for the Portland
Airport and other businesses.
And that's the crux of the lawsuit.
It alleges that because Portland
allows local use of those facilities,
it's discriminating against
out-of-state companies,
which would be a violation of the
Commerce Clause of the Constitution.
But Nick Caleb,
an attorney with breach Collective,
which is an environmental
justice advocacy group,
had a much different take on the lawsuit.
The kind of straightforward argument
they're making is that their
ability to earn profits via risky
transport and storage of hazardous
materials in Portland Trump's the
right of Portlanders to be safe
from massive industrial disasters. Now,
most of the liquid fuel stored in
Oregon is on the banks of the limit,
Willamette River, in hundreds of large tanks,
and Caleb said the policy
ensures no new storage facilities
would be built in that area,
which is prone to liquefaction in
the event of a large earthquake.
But the lawsuit?
Says the policies have the
reverse of their intended effect,
essentially prohibiting oil companies
from building new,
safer storage facilities.
And the lawsuit calls for a judge
to nullify the existing policies
and impose a permanent injunction
to prevent the city from doing
anything similar in the future.
And unless the parties reach a settlement,
the case could be headed for
trial in the coming months.
David Laurel,
thank you, Kyle.