PORTLAND, Ore. (KGW) — The victim in a fatal shooting early Monday morning at Portland State University in downtown Portland has been identified as Amara Marluke, 19, according to a Portland Police Bureau (PPB) news release.
An autopsy confirmed Marluke died from gunshot wounds, and her death has been ruled a homicide, police said.
Press releases from the police and the university do not say whether Marluke was a PSU student, although her social media pages appear to indicate that she was.
The suspected shooter was arrested south of Bend later in the day, PPB previously announced on Monday afternoon.
Keenan Harpole, 20, was taken into custody by the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office at a property on Homestead Way between Bend and La Pine after agreeing to turn himself into authorities the same day of the shooting.
The university confirmed that Harpole was a first-year student and member of the PSU football team but is no longer on the team. He attended Mountain View High School in Bend.
The sheriff’s office transported Harpole back to Portland to be booked at the Multnomah County jail for second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon.
Around 1 a.m. Monday, Central Precinct police officers were dispatched to a report of a shooting near the intersection of Southwest College Street and Southwest 6th Avenue, according to an initial news release from PPB.
Officers arrived and found one woman deceased. The Portland Police Homicide Unit responded to investigate. Southwest College Street was closed for several hours during the investigation, police said.
Portland State University has been in contact with PPB investigators and there is no ongoing threat to the campus, the college said in a news release late Monday morning.
“The Portland State community is saddened to learn that the epidemic of deadly gun violence that has plagued so many cities has hit close to home,” the university wrote in the news release.
The incident is the latest in a long series of shooting deaths in Portland so far this year, continuing a recent trend closely linked to the city’s gun violence epidemic.
There were 90 homicides in Portland last year, coupled with a surge in gun violence with more than 1,200 shootings by the end of the year, compared with fewer than 400 shootings in 2019. Most of the homicide victims were killed by someone with a gun.
There have been at least 25 homicides in Portland so far in 2022, not counting Monday morning’s shooting death, which puts the city on track to surpass last year’s total if the trend continues.
Anyone with information about Monday’s shooting is asked to contact Detective Jason Koenig at 503-823-0889 or Detective William Winters at 503-823-0466.
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