The official count for 2021, from the Portland Police Department, is now 88. We are missing three on our list. We have documented the other 85.

Portland had a giant spike in 1987, that resulted in 66 homicides. In fact, 45.8% of all homicides in the entire state of Oregon occurred in Portland that year. Portland has exceeded the 1987 homicide spike, but did not quite exceed the 1987 homicide rate, because the population has grown.

Also note that in 2019, Portland authorities made the rules stricter for what is officially counted as a homicide.

In early August, Portland police announced that only 15 suspects have arrested for 2021 homicides so far.

Derrick Kenreko Marshall, 41, Black male, December 24th

Michael Johnson, 53, Black male, December 23rd

DeAndrae D. Stephens, 30, Black male, December 21st

Daquan Taeshawn James Turner, 27, Black male, December 19th (Suspect: Borissean T. Washington, Black male)

Joshua Aaron Byrd, 38, White male, December 18th

Christian Z. McNeill,, 18, White male, December 12th

Omar Greely, 41, Black Male, December 6th

Silas High Hawk, 30, American Indian, December 5th

Keion Cordell Howard, 19, Black male, December 4th

David Sanders, 32, racially mixed male, November 23rd

Mariela Gonzalez Rocha, 29, Latina female, November 21st (suspect: Davonte A. Donahue, Black male)

George Edward Rowe IV, 34, White male, November 7th

Dominick Luster, 20, Black male, November 6th

Unnamed, 2, Latino, October 31st (Suspect: Gustavo Villalobos-Carranza, 31, Latino male)

David Larson, 35, White male, October 26th

Daniel C. Davis, 47, White male, October 24th (Suspect: Michael S. VanDomelen, White male)

Ashlie D. Walker, 37, White female, October 24th (Suspect: Michael S. VanDomelen, White male)

Unnamed, October 8th (69th homicide)

Joshua Newell, 41, White male, October 1st (Suspect: Matthew Clement, 42, White male)

Craig Wisdom, 40, White male, September 29th (Suspect: Underage suspect, identity classified)

Jacob Knight-Vasquez, 34, White male, September 24th

Sean Edward Garner, 44, White male, September 19th

Thurston Harris, 48, Black Male, August 27th, (Suspect: Tera A. Harris, 49, Black female, vehicle used as murder weapon)

JaMarie Herring Sr, 25, Black male, August 22nd (Suspect: Rolando L. Mingledoff Jr., 22, Black male)

Jonathon “Johnny” Polanco, 30 year old White male, August 20th (Suspect: Leonard Edwards, Black male)

Quaii Snider, 37 year old Black male, August 17th (Killed in a homeless encampment)

David Turner, 45 year old Black male, August 10th, (Rapper affiliated with Wutang Clan, killed in mass shooting)

Odion Turner, 42 year old Black male, August 10th, (Rapper affiliated with Wutang Clan, killed in mass shooting)

Adrian Richardson, 47, White Male, August 8th, (Suspect: Wayne Thompson, 47, White male)

Dohnavinh Saelee, 18, Asian, August 7th

Quinton Bryce Miller, White male, 37, July 24th (Suspect: Austin D. Hayes, 32, racially mixed)

Joseph Dewey, 38, White male, July 17th (Suspect: Alec Kirk Belgrade, 26, White male)

Makayla Maree Harris, 18, Black female, July 17th

Patrick Pruitt, 50, Black Male, July 15th (Suspect: Antonio L. Howard, 31, Black Male)

Alex Hensley, 28, Black male, June 28th

Olance A. Upton, 47, Black male, June 25th

Alexander Douglas Martinson, 19, White Male, June 19th (Suspect: Jaizion Propps, 20, Black male)

Evelin Navarro-Barajas, 23 Hispanic female, June 18th

Sergio Hunt, 17, Black male, June 17th

Wiliam Kendrick, 36, Black male, June 17th

Dennis Harmon, 34, White male, June 8th

Mitchell Nacoste, 31 Black male, June 6th

Kendall Gragg, 27 Black male, June 6th

Donovan Lenford, 24, June 6th

Eylon Willis, 23 Black male, June 6th

Gary O’Connor, 45, White male, June 5th (Suspect: Michael McAllester, 33, White male)

Freddy Nelson, 49, White male, May 29th

Darren Lockett, 40, Black male, May 29th

Joseph Robert Sipe, 24, White male, May 25th (Suspect: Aaron D. Christopher, 40, White male)

Sergio Hunt, 17, Black male, May 23rd

Alexandra R. Arb-Bloodgood, 29, White female, May 16th (Suspect: Shane Finnell, 25, White male)

Danae K. Williams, 25, Mixed-race female, May 12th

Jalon M. Yoakum, 33, Black male, May 12th

Breauna White, 30, Black female, May 5th (Suspect: Henry Brogdon, 30, Black male)

Michael Arrington, 53, White male, April 21st (Suspect: Unidentified 16 year old male)

Calvin Jerome Jackson, 20, Black male, April 19th

Hunter Means, 0, Black male, April 14th, (Suspect: Dakota Kurtis Means, 21, Black Male)

Edward T. Grant, 41, Black male, April 10th

Jay Ahn, 40, Asian male, March 31st (Suspect: William E. Aho, 37, White male)

Kim Lambright, 53, March 28th

Errol Rees, 57, White male, March 19th, (Suspect: Roy Lawrence Bennett Jr, 29, White male)

Jay Underwood, 60, White male, March 18th (Suspect: Blake M. Daniels, 38, White male)

Cory Zenuch, White male, February 10th (Suspect: Elijah Townsend, 27, Black male)

Isaiah J. Maza, Jr., 19, Latino Male, January 31st (Suspect: Gerson Perez-Gil, 18, Latino Male)

Jean Gerich, 77, White male, January 25th (Suspect: Paul Rivas, 64, White male)

Christian Martinez, 19, Latino male, January 2nd (Suspect: Angel C. Martinez, 23, Latino male)

In 1993, as the so-called “Crack Wars” raged across the country, Portland had a murder rate of 10.8 per 100k. Unless homicides drop, Portland is on track to experience a homicide rate in the neighborhood of 15 per 100k for 2021.

Before August 2019, Portland counted negligent vehicular homicide as part of their overall homicide count. This means the homicide counts for 2019 and earlier could be lower if the new rules were applied.

1971: 15 (384k people, 3.9 per 100k)

1987: 66 (450k people, 14.7 per 100k)

1993: 54 (498k people, 10.8 per 100k)

2008: 24
2009: 21
2010: 23 (about 584k people)
2011: 19 (forty-year low)
2012: 25
2013: 16 (forty-two year low, the lowest murder rate in modern history for Portland, about 607k people, 2.64 per 100k)
2014: 26
2015: 34
2016: 20
2017: 25
2018: 36
2019: 35

2020: 57  (653k people, 9.0 per 100k)

2021: 88 (653k people, 13.5 per 100k)

 

Average yearly homicides from 2008 to 2017: 23.3

In 1960, the entire state of Oregon, with 1.77 million people, only had 43 homicides. Today, Portland is estimated to have .65 million residents.

In 1971, the entire state of Oregon, with 2.16 million people, had 70 homicides. Portland, with 384k, had 15 homicides that year. 

The population increase since 1990 has been primarily Latino and Asians. Whites have declined as a percentage of the population since 1940. Blacks began declining as a percentage of the population since 1990.

According to the Portland Police:

Individual Shootings (first five months):

2021: 453
2020: 200
2019: 189

Individual Shootings per entire year:

2020: 891
2019: 381

Total Homicides per entire year:

2020: 57 (57 would mean 2020 was an all-time record by 3)
2019: 35
2018: 26
2017: 25
2016: 16

Portland will almost certainly set a new record for homicides, by a large margin, in 2021

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