Toddler avoids street shooting by seconds
By AMBER WILMARTH
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PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) — A father is sharing his terrifying experience with a shooting outside his house in northeast Portland to try to inspire change.
It happened Saturday afternoon, at around 3:30 p.m. near Northeast Highland Street and Northeast Rodney Avenue and it was all caught on the home security video.
Adam Johnson tells FOX 12 that two of his children were playing outside while he was doing some yard work when it happened.
He said a red car stopped on their street, followed by a white car. He said the two drivers began yelling at each other, then — there was gunfire.
At that moment, he had already gotten his daughter to safety: “My five-year-old daughter was playing next to me. I scooped her up and hid her behind the neighbors fence.”
His three-year-old son had been riding his scooter on the driveway around the corner, feet away from the shooting.
In the security video, you can see the toddler rode onto the driveway and into the garage — just seconds before the gunfire rang out.
“I didn’t know if he was going to be standing there watching or if he was going to be laying on the ground hurt,” said Johnson about his son.
Johnson tells FOX 12 he and his two children, along with his wife and third child who weren’t home at the time are all doing well, but they’re still pretty shaken up.
“There’s nothing isolated about this…out in the open…no concern for anything around. That’s really disheartening,” said Johnson.
Johnson and his wife are hoping by sharing this experience, it will encourage city and community leaders to take action to curb the climbing number of shootings in the city.
FOX 12 contacted Portland police for an update on this shooting and is waiting to hear back.
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