Portlander kills man and then aims at filming bystander
- The incident was reportedly set off by road rage
- One man was killed and another injured
- The man injured was filming the shooting from some distance away
PORTLAND, OR – AUGUST 13: Wildfire smoke lingers over Downton, keeping heatwave temperatures relatively low, on August 13, 2021 in Portland, Oregon. As temperatures climb across the nation, nearly 200 million Americans are under some level of heat advisory. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
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(NewsNation) — Geoffrey Hammond, a wealthy Portland businessman, allegedly shot a man dead in a fit of road rage and then turned his firearm on a bystander filming the incident.
Hammond reportedly drove a Mercedes Benz SUV in front of the Moxy Hotel in downtown Portland. That’s when Ryan Martin pulled up behind him and tried to encourage Hammond to move.
When Martin approached Hammond, Hammond reportedly shot him in the chest.
At about that time, a man named Sam Gomez reportedly started filming the encounter between the two men. That’s when Hammond allegedly shot Gomez once in the leg; a second shot missed Gomez.
While Martin died at the scene, Gomez was taken to the hospital and survived.
“Everything just changed,” Gomez said of the incident. “I’m just grateful that I’m alive because it could have been worse.”
Hammond himself called 911 and admitted to shooting both of the men.
He believed he was justified in doing so “because Ryan Martin menaced him and because Sam Gomez might have had a weapon,” the affidavit related to the incident said.
