2009 Portland nightclub shooting
Encyclopedia
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
, The Zone, in Portland
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
, Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
, United States, killing two attendees and wounding seven others. Most of the victims were foreign exchange students. Police have defined the shooting spree was a random act of violence. It has been called, "the worst mass shooting in Portland's history".
Ayala was critically wounded after the attack by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He died two days later in a Portland-area hospital.
Shooting
At approximately 10:30 p.m. PST, Ayala drove his vehicle to Southwest 4th Avenue and Southwest Main Street in the downtown of PortlandDowntown Portland
Downtown Portland, the city center of Portland, Oregon, United States, is located on the west bank of the Willamette River. It is in the northeastern corner of the southwest section of the city and is where most of the city's high-rise buildings are found....
, and walked ahead of The Zone, an under-21 nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
where a birthday party was being held. Ayala fired indiscriminately onto a group of teenagers and customers waiting outside the entrance of KELL's Irish Pub,with a 9mm Tanfoglio
Tanfoglio
Fratelli Tanfoglio S.N.C. is an Italian gun manufacturing company. Their current weapons are used extensively in sport competitions and for personal defence. Tanfoglio is located in Gardone Val Trompia - Italy, and is known for its broad sport pistol catalogue...
semi-automatic pistol
Pistol
When distinguished as a subset of handguns, a pistol is a handgun with a chamber that is integral with the barrel, as opposed to a revolver, wherein the chamber is separate from the barrel as a revolving cylinder. Typically, pistols have an effective range of about 100 feet.-History:The pistol...
, killing two people and wounding seven others. Most of the victims were in a foreign exchange student program. Ayala then shot himself in the head, critically injuring himself in the suicide attempt, dying on the following Tuesday afternoon at Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland.
Ashley Lauren Wilks, 16, was pronounced dead at the scene, by responding emergency personnel, from two gunshot wounds. Martha Paz De Noboa, 17, was pronounced dead at Oregon Health and Science University Hospital shortly after being shot. Susanna De Sousa, 18, was in critical condition from injuries to her stomach, chest and neck. Bradley Yoast, the General Manager of Kells Irish Restaurant & Pub, the next-door,neighboring bar, suffered a gunshot wound to the stomach. He was discharged from a hospital two weeks later.
Deceased
Three people were killed in the shooting:- Martha "Tika" Paz de Noboa, 17 — ArequipaArequipaArequipa is the capital city of the Arequipa Region in southern Peru. With a population of 836,859 it is the second most populous city of the country...
, PeruPeruPeru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.... - Ashley Lauren Wilks, 16 — Happy ValleyHappy Valley, OregonHappy Valley is a city in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States. The population was 4,519 at the 2000 census.-History:Happy Valley was originally called Christilla Valley, named after the first residents, Christian and Matilda Deardorff. They arrived in 1851 and claimed on the floor of the...
, Oregon - The Shooter,Erik Salvador Ayala, 24 — MilwaukieMilwaukie, OregonMilwaukie is a city in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States. A very small portion of the city extends into Multnomah County. The population was 20,291 at the 2010 census. Founded in 1848 on the banks of the Willamette River, the city, known as the Dogwood City of the West, was incorporated in...
, Oregon (perpetrator)
Injured
Seven people were injured in the shooting:- Jouyuan Trista Chang, 18 — TaiwanTaiwanTaiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
- Susanna "Susy" De Sousa, 18 — ItalyItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
- Jalontae Howard, 16 — Portland
- Gonzalo Vasquez Orozco, 18 — GuatemalaGuatemalaGuatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
- Anne Sophie Rialland, 16 — FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
- Ana Zambrano Soledispa, 18 — EcuadorEcuadorEcuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
- Bradley Steven Yoast, 44 — Portland
Perpetrator
The perpetrator of the shooting was Erik Salvador Ayala, 24 (March 10, 1984 - January 27, 2009). He graduated from McNary High SchoolMcNary High School
McNary High School is a public high school located in Keizer, Oregon, United States. It is named for Charles L. McNary, a U.S. Senator who was from the Keizer area.-Academics:...
, in Keizer
Keizer, Oregon
Keizer is a city in Marion County, Oregon, United States, along the 45th parallel. It was named for Thomas Dove and John Brooks Keizer, two pioneers who arrived in the Wagon Train of 1843, and later filed donation land claims. The population was 36,278 at the 2010 census...
, Oregon, in 2002. Although a clear motive was never found, investigators speculated that Ayala had been diagnosed as a schizophrenic during his high school years and once attempted suicide by overdosing on over-the-counter drug
Over-the-counter drug
Over-the-counter drugs are medicines that may be sold directly to a consumer without a prescription from a healthcare professional, as compared to prescription drugs, which may be sold only to consumers possessing a valid prescription...
s. He worked at Burger King and threw his medication into the garbage instead of taking it. They also state that he used online discussion boards
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
where he stated he disliked "Preppies". He lived at the Pine Ridge Apartments, in Milwaukie (formerly known as Willow Court) where the police and the community have had a long history of ongoing problems (drug dealing, crime, abuse, etc.).