And we'll get to the snow that's
beginning to impact the
Portland area in just a moment.
But first, a breaking news and a
shooting this evening at Michigan
State University that authorities
say has left at least three people
dead and five others injured.
And police at the sprawling
campus in East Lansing say the
suspect eventually killed himself.
Now, details are still coming in,
but for hours, students on campus
were told to shelter in place.
At one point,
police cleared a dining hall
filled with hundreds of students,
leaving many simply terrified.
We ran out of the cafeteria
and there were police outside.
I don't even it felt like nothing.
Like within a second I was outside and
there were cops and they told us to run.
And I was turning around screaming her name.
I couldn't hear her.
Everyone was screaming everyone's names.
It was really loud.
Yeah. Police released a
surveillance photo of the suspect.
You'll see it in a second.
And a Jean jacket and red
sneakers to aid in that search.
That lasted again at least a couple of hours.
Now, just a short time ago,
police clarified that he is a 43 year old man
with no known connection to the university.
Again, authorities saying the
suspect here is taking his own life.
Of updates on both kgw.com
and NBC News as they come in.
Well locally tonight we are following a
blast of winter weather hitting our region.
The snow was started to
come down in several spots.
This is a live look from Sylvan Hill
in Southwest Portland where you can
see snows coating the shrubs.
The trees we've seen plows making
their ways up and down the road there.
Looks like it is coming down,
but for now the roads are
looking pretty good and clear.
That could change overnight though.
Keep in mind check out the big flakes we
saw coming down in battleground Washington.
This was even earlier tonight
we also had reports of.
You know, everywhere from downtown
Portland to further E out in Happy Valley.
Look at those flakes.
Thanks for joining us.
I'm David Mulco,
along with chief meteorologist Matt Zaffino.
OK, Matt, walk us through the timing here.
How much snow could we see overnight?
Yeah, the main event is just now
coming onshore, but this was earlier.
We had that band of snow
showers move on through.
This is downtown Portland and you
can see the snow in the air here.
It's not actually red.
That's just the light on the top
of the building that has moved
on through and in its wake,
we've got this band of low cloud that
has formed as the the snow helped.
Cool the air mass,
the snow moved on and then
the moisture condense.
We've got this area of low clouds over
downtown Portland right now where it
is 35 degrees and not snowing at the moment.
Still some rain showers out
of the Portland airport too.
But watch and you look at Doppler radar.
First of all,
a lot of lightning strikes.
We've had several come on shore at the coast.
There's still some more offshore.
That just proves the point is how
dynamic and active this weather
pattern is over the valleys right now.
The last band of Snow has moved out.
We're getting a break at the moment,
but there's more coming onshore right now.
And that.
Is really the main act, which I'll
show you in the satellite in just a minute.
Here's some more snow for you.
This is from sandy up around 1000 feet.
Dirty. Sorry.
Judy Paradin,
Origan sending us this picture from Sandy.
Thank you, Judy for that.
OK,
here it is.
This is the feature we've been watching
all day and really picked up on even late
last week that this would come in tonight.
This is a little bit more
organized band of showers.
It's a little bit more widespread.
So that's going to be snow
as that begins to move in,
in the next hour or so.
Certainly cold enough.
The snow,
as you can see,
temperatures in the low 30s and
they will continue to cool and
get colder overnight tonight.
So by the hour.
This is the latest from the European model.
Now up to 1.6 inches.
It's actually gone up a bit.
There's still a ranged from
just a few tenths of an inch to
about 2-3 inches for the valley.
But I see it breaking down like this.
The snow increasing tonight after midnight.
Valley Floor Destiny 2 up to
two inches above 500 feet,
though up to three inches.
So yes,
it's going to be rather white
as we go overnight.
Back to you.
Still
more to come. Thank you, Matt.
Reminder, Multnomah County is
open 3 warming shelters tonight.
The locations are here on your screen.
Officials say no one will be turned away,
and all of these sites are open
to Pat's TriMet, also wayfarers
for anyone headed to a shelter.
Well, new tonight,
it is one of the clearest signs of how
severe Portland's drug challenges have grown.
Thousands upon thousands of used
needles littering the streets.
And while it appears a surge
in sharps officials say,
May eventually subside,
our Catherine Cook explains why that
in and of itself might be a symptom.
Of another troubling trend.
At every homeless camp I've gone past,
you see somebody shooting drugs.
It's a part of Portland's landscape.
Renata Carnegie has come to expect
the drug use and the drifts of
discarded needles left behind.
I think it's really dangerous.
Even anywhere where there's a
park and and they've been there.
There's just needles everywhere.
What Renata sees is not anecdotal.
Look at the latest numbers from
downtown Portland, Clean and safe.
In 2022, they collected
nearly 177,000 used needles.
Just from its downtown enhanced service area,
the Needles came from public right aways
as well as four county Dropbox sites.
The number is staggering in itself,
but now compared to just
eight years ago in 2014,
clean and safe collected just under
5000 needles from the same area.
So you see that dramatic change and
you really can incrementally follow the
opioid crisis through the the needles
that clean and safe has been collecting.
Mark Wells is executive director
of Downtown Portland Clean and Safe
and when I'm out with my staff seeing people.
Using drugs openly suffering from addiction.
They need help and they deserve help.
Everyone needs to realize the drug
crisis that we have on our streets.
And it's not just the streets of
downtown Portland. Last year,
Metro's RID patrol collected nearly
10,000 used needles from public spaces.
And then there's the 14 other sharps
collection boxes the county place citywide.
Metro tells us over the last four
years they've collected a total of
1,480,000 needles from those boxes.
We have got to.
Prioritized drug treatment and
being honest with ourselves
and it is a city problem.
It is a county problem
and it's a state problem,
a problem that could be evolving.
KGW found one more statistic
regarding used needles.
Maloma County's Health Department
offers several syringe exchange sites.
In 2021, they collected
over 6,046,000 syringes.
Last year, that number
dropped to 3,248,000 syringes,
a 50% drop in one year.
Health officials believe it directly
reflects the rise in fentanyl use.
They say more people are turning
to the deadly synthetic opioid
to achieve the high they've been
getting intravenously for so long.
And for that reason,
County health officials tell
me they predict the number of
needles collected from other sites
around the city could also begin
to drop as soon as next year.
But again,
that is as fentanyl use continues
to reach epidemic levels.
David,
really important context there.
Catherine, appreciate your reporting tonight.
Thank you. Let's get you caught
up on tonight's other headlines.
Now the city of Portland is moving
forward with its plan to move homeless
people to larger sanctioned campsites,
and one of those reportedly
appears to be in a parking lot.
In the Central Eastside,
off SE Gideon and 13th, this is an
area known as the Clinton Triangle.
The city has not confirmed the location,
but The Oregonian reports,
according to the mayor's public calendar,
he was scheduled to work on a letter
of intent related to that site.
Well, tonight, new parents, families,
and care providers gathered to try
to save a birthing center in Gresham.
They rallied outside legacy
Mount Hood Hospital,
which is planning to
close its birthing center,
citing both financial losses and a lower
number of births compared to other.
Hospitals.
Now,
those who want to stop the closure
say it'll make inequity for people
who call East County home even worse.
I feel so fortunate that we received
the care that we did and I know many,
many other people have had
repeat deliveries here.
I would have had my second daughter here,
but we lived out of state at the time, so.
This is just an amazing facility.
It'll be a huge loss to our community.
Well, the state still has
to approve that closure,
which is tentatively set for March 17th,
and the head of the Oregon Liquor
and Cannabis Commission is out.
Amidst a scandal over high end liquor,
governor Tina Kotek asked for his
resignation last week and Steve Marks
agreed today to step down on Wednesday.
Now the scandal,
first reported by The Oregonian last week,
reportedly involves high level
executives at the Commission redirecting
rare bottles of top shelf bourbon.
For themselves,
organs Attorney general has since
launched a criminal investigation.
Well, tonight there are new questions
and calls for transparency about
exactly what is flying in American and
Canadian skies after US fighter jets
shot down three UFO's since Friday.
Now officials say all three objects,
as they are calling them,
were unmanned and appeared
to be moved only by the wind.
The White House also rather
cheekily saying today that there
is no link to extraterrestrials,
though it turns out there is.
A Portland connection.
That is because F fifteens were
scrambled out of Portland Air
National Guard base in the search
for one of those objects.
So here is Josh Hovanes,
the commander of the 123rd Fighter Squadron.
You know,
we scrambled on the object over Montana.
And, you know, we, you know,
our job is to protect the Northwest.
And when we scramble, we operate under,
you know, the jurisdiction of
Northern Command, all right?
The commander says when
pilots got overmann Montana,
it was starting to get a little bit late.
He did not go into specifics.
Over why the crews ultimately
did not locate that object,
but that UFO was eventually
located near Michigan and
shot down over Lake Huron.
Recovery efforts are underway.