On June 30th, Tyson L. Morlock set up a large swimming pool for the homeless under an overpass on Southeast Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard. He was praised by independent “journalist” Sergio Olmos, who tweeted about the pool. While the reporter paints him as an activist, he also quotes Morlock talking about stealing a Slurpee, indicating that Morlock may be homeless as well.
Morlock was found stabbed to death the next morning in the same spot. Police have a suspect, who remained at the scene, but no information has been released to the public.
Portland’s KOIN Channel 6 ran a segment about the pool on July 2nd. Despite the fact that Morlock is apparently in their video, they attribute the pool to a man calling himself “Ninja.” That man says he got the pool from a different person. The entire segment never even mentions Morlock’s death! The station published a follow-up article on July 3rd that finally mentioned the stabbing.
Portland had at least 38 homicides between January and May of 2021. With Morlock’s death, there has been at least 49 total. At the end of 2020, the official number of homicides was 54, which was a tie with 1993 for being the highest in Portland’s history. However, now the Portland Police Burea is reporting 57, which would make 2020 an all-time high. Portland is on track to completely destroy all records for homicides.
