When our journalists first heard a federal officer may have shot someone in Southeast Portland last Thursday, they jumped into action.
One reporter began scouring police scanners while two other reporters and two photographers headed to the scene. Social media journalists began scanning for mentions of the incident online as other journalists checked in with law enforcement, city and state officials.
“It was wild,” said reporter Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, who was covering the Portland City Council’s contentious election of its next president Thursday afternoon when councilors abruptly paused the meeting and left the chamber.
“One minute later,” he said, “a source called me and said everyone had left the room because a federal agent had just shot some people in east Portland.”
Federal officials later confirmed a Border Patrol agent had shot and injured a man and a woman during a traffic stop near Southeast Portland’s Adventist Health hospital at 2:19 p.m.
After working diligently to confirm facts, which can be hard during breaking news, our journalists published their initial report at 3:39 p.m.
By 4:16 p.m., more than 30 of our journalists were actively working the story and by the end of the night, we’d published 11 stories on OregonLive.com with extensive photo galleries and videos from the scene, a late afternoon press conference and evening vigils and protests. Our social media team added to and amplified that work with more than a dozen posts on numerous platforms.
Around 6 p.m., we started nearing the deadline for Friday morning’s print newspaper. We now have slightly earlier deadlines since partnering this year with The (Vancouver) Columbian to print The Oregonian. So, with some details still murky, our newsroom and design teams worked fast to be sure we had a solid front-page story on the shooting for our print readers.
Other stories came in too late for the Friday print edition, but online newspaper readers found Yesenia Amaro’s 7:30 p.m. report on Attorney General Dan Rayfield’s investigation into the shooting, along with other developments in the Extra section (page 34 in the online newspaper).
We always aim to get the most up-to-date information in print, but deadlines are no joke and breaking news rarely sticks to a schedule.
That’s why print subscribers should take advantage of the online newspaper – which delivers articles in a familiar newspaper layout but is accessed through theoregonian.com website. Because we can easily update the page, the online newspaper provides us more opportunity to serve you. News and sports coverage from later events will typically be found in the Extra section, along with national and entertainment news.
Readers can always find our most up-to-date reports at the online newspaper’s “Breaking News” tab or at OregonLive.com. By noon Friday, for instance, readers found another half dozen stories on the shooting and an editorial there.
Oregonians are on edge after months of wondering whether National Guard troops would be deployed in Portland. Thursday’s shooting added to people’s fears, especially as it came the day after a federal officer fatally shot a woman in Minneapolis.
The story here is complicated by the fact news organizations aren’t receiving updates from federal law enforcement as regularly as we might from local agencies. So, each story we produce is important to keep our community informed.
We know that’s why you’ll want to share them with friends and family.
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Another option is to take advantage of The Oregonian/OregonLive’s Family Share program, which allows you to share your subscription with up to four people.
Print subscribers with access to the online newspaper should go to myaccount.oregonlive.com and sign out. Click “activate,” which will take you to a “Create Account” page. Plug in the email of the person you’d like to share with, create a password and click “create account.” That takes you to a section to input your information to link your subscription to your friend or family member’s email. You should receive a message that your account has been successfully linked.
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