Portland police chief reacts to this weekend's shooting horror, stresses recruitment for new gun violence unit

Portland’s police chief reacted Monday to this past weekend’s record-breaking gun violence, again stressing the need for his department to recruit officers for its newly resurrected gun violence unit, which over the summer saw little interest from cops a year after the defund police movement. 

Chuck Lovell, chief of the Portland Police Bureau, reacted after his officers responded to at least 19 shootings over the weekend, including one double homicide which pushed Portland past its three-decade record number of killings. By Monday, three of those shootings resulted in a suspect identified or taken into custody, The Oregonian reported, as the remaining 16 were still under investigation. 

"The ongoing tragedy of gun violence is on my mind tonight after a terrible weekend of violence in our city. A double murder this weekend. Nineteen shootings in 54 hours. Stunning," Lovell tweeted Monday.