A Salem police evidence marker indicates a possible bullet hole from an early Sunday shooting on Aug. 18 on Northeast Pine Street that killed a woman and hospitalized a man. (Salem Reporter/Aubrey Wieber)
Nearly 12 hours after a fatal shooting, several eyewitnesses stood out front of Pine Street Pub, directly where they saw their friends gunned down, recounting Sunday morning’s harrowing event.
Salem residents Jennifer Black, 40, and Lee Wheeler, 37, were standing in front of the pub, located at 460 Pine St. N.E., with several other people at 1:30 a.m. Sunday when a man came up and shot them both, eyewitnesses told Salem Reporter.
Black died and Wheeler is hospitalized from a gunshot wound. Police are still searching for the gunman, and were at the scene Sunday afternoon talking to neighboring businesses and eyewitnesses.
The murderous shooting came just about the same time as shots also rang out near Englewood Park, where a teenager was shot to death two weeks ago. The city park is on Northeast 19th Street just south of Market Street.
The Salem Police Department is beefing up patrols with officers on overtime to counter the run of violence, according to Lt. Treven Upkes, department spokesman. He said patrols would be targeted.
He said police want help from witnesses at the shooting scene or anyone who saw anything unusual at that time in the neighborhood. He said police also are interested in any security video from businesses or homeowners that might provide information. He said people are urged to call the police tip line at 503-588-8477.
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At the scene of Sunday’s murder, there were several surveillance cameras outside, including one from Pine Street Pub right over where the shooting took place. Bartender Marcos Flores said police asked his manager for video footage.
Detectives on the scene declined to comment on the shooting, and in a news release declined to provide much detail, including Wheeler’s identity. But several witnesses and friends described the situation to Salem Reporter.
Flores said several patrons of the bar told him the shooter was involved in some sort of altercation at the bar earlier in the night. He then left on his bike before returning and shooting Black and Wheeler. Flores didn’t know details about the earlier altercation, including if either victims were involved.
Both were taken by ambulance to Salem Health, said Rick Bohanan, who identified himself as the boyfriend of Wheeler’s mother. Bohanan said Wheeler was hit once in his back. Bohanan, who identified Wheeler, was also at the bar during the shooting.
He said Wheeler is recovering well.
One man, who asked to just be identified as “Lucky,” said he was standing between the two victims when the shooter approached from the east and started firing. Lucky estimated the shooter was about 10 feet away. He felt several bullets whiz past his head and he quickly got down on the ground.
Lucky said he is a friend of Wheeler’s and had met Black a couple of times. Bohanan said Wheeler told him the shooter said “you deserve this” before firing.
Several more patrons were in a fenced-in smoking area on the sidewalk in front of the bar, where Bohanan, Richard Windfield and Scott Elsom were sitting.
Elsom was leaning over the fence to give someone on the other side a lighter when the shooter came up. He said everyone immediately ducked, then scattered.
“All I heard was ‘pop, pop,’ and I seen wood flying from where I was standing,” Elsom said. “Then I jumped down. I didn’t see the shooter or anything.”
Bohanan said police arrived quickly and cordoned off the scene. He and Wheeler’s mother drove to the hospital, where he encountered a man who said he was Black’s boyfriend, who heard of the shooting by listening to the scanner.
It’s not clear how many shots were fired. Several witnesses recalled around five. Four struck the smoking area fence, one reportedly struck the front of a car in the parking lot, and one was lodged in Wheeler.
Elsom said he had been in the bar for no more than 10 minutes when he saw Wheeler, his best friend, and said hello. Seconds later, Wheeler and Black were gunned down.
Both were reportedly regulars at the bar.
Pine Street Pub is in a strip mall at the intersection of Broadway and Pine Street. Bohanan said Wheeler, who works as a “jack of all trades,” was at the pub every night.
For Flores, the shooting was the last straw. He said he’s leaving his job for something less chaotic.
Elsom, though, said it’s a place where everyone knows each other.
“Rough bar, yeah you could say that,” he said. “But it’s home to me.”
Upkes confirmed that police also had reports of gunfire at Englewood Park.
A resident in the area of the park told Salem Reporter.
“I was reading late and had the window open for cool air,” the resident said, who asked not to be identified. “At 1:16 a.m. this morning, I very clearly heard four gunshots fired.”
It was two weeks ago that police responded to another report of shots at the park and found 16-year-old Ishaq Saleem with a gunshot wound. He later died at the hospital.
“Recent activities in our neighborhood…are deeply disturbing,” the area resident said.
A Salem police evidence marker indicates a possible bullet hole from an early Sunday shooting on Aug. 18 on Northeast Pine Street that killed a woman and hospitalized a man. (Salem Reporter/Aubrey Wieber)
A Salem police evidence marker indicates a possible bullet hole from an early Sunday shooting on Aug. 18 on Northeast Pine Street that killed a woman and hospitalized a man. (Salem Reporter/Aubrey Wieber)
A Salem police evidence marker indicates a possible bullet hole from an early Sunday shooting on Aug. 18 on Northeast Pine Street that killed a woman and hospitalized a man. (Salem Reporter/Aubrey Wieber)
Witnesses say a gunman shooting from this vantage point hit two people early Sunday out the Pine Street Pub. Police evidence markers indicate possible bullet holes. (Salem Reporter/Aubrey Wieber)
Bartender Marcos Flores cleans fingerprint powder off the front door of the Pine Street Pub Sunday, Aug. 19, as Salem police continued their investigation into an early morning shooting that killed one person and injured another. (Salem Reporter/Aubrey Wieber)
The Pine Street Pub in northeast Salem was the scene of shooting early Sunday, Aug. 19, that killed a woman and injured a man. (Salem Reporter/Aubrey Wieber)
Reporter Aubrey Wieber: [email protected] or 503-575-1251.
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