Martin Luther King said: "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools..." Those words are as true today as they were when Dr. King spoke them 56 years ago in St. Louis. Let's heed these words: Let's choose to live together as brothers and sisters.

We can never allow hatred, racism, division and violence to win. When we allow that, democracy loses. When we allow violence and division to triumph, hope dies. The violence that is occurring in our city needs to stop.

We're seeing too much tragedy across our city. A teenager died last week in a shooting in Northeast Portland. A neighbor did what neighbors do—she used a belt as a tourniquet to try to stop it, but it was tragically in vain.

Hate, division, hopelessness, and too many guns in the wrong hands is fueling this round of violence and it will take all of us together to stop the bleeding in our community - and in our country.

We are in a pivotal time right now. We cannot afford to allow the calls for social justice and an end to systemic racism to be overshadowed by violence. We cannot allow this critical moment in our history to hijacked.

I'm thankful for the officers, the detectives, and the attorneys from my office who went to the scene last night.
I will initiate a criminal case following a review of all available evidence and whenever legally and ethically appropriate, pursuant to the law.