As a pastor was giving a eulogy in a packed North Portland church for a 44-year-old man fatally shot in a car near the Moda Center, Portland police detectives worked nine blocks away marking evidence from a morning shooting that left another man fighting for his life.

"We're here today for a senseless reason,'' Pastor Kimberly Black said at last Friday's funeral for Markell Devon Jones. "I bet some of you are saying to yourself, 'I'm tired of seeing my people die.'''

Jones was gunned down as he rode in a car the night of Oct. 5, a shooting that police witnessed as they were outside the Moda Center, where a "Wild 'N Out Live'' improv comedy show was performing inside.

Six people have died in shootings in the last three-and-a-half weeks. Police have responded to gunfire 20 times across the city since Sept. 30, marking a sharp spike in gun violence in the city. Shootings have topped 300 a year since 2016.

With shootings reported nearly every day – and sometimes two or three times a day, Portland police are working to intensify their investigations of every shooting, while church and community leaders on Friday plan to appeal for a halt to the violence.

Police and prosecutors suspect the shootings stem from a mix of factors mostly springing from heated gang rivalries, some that have erupted in the wake of recent killings and others that have simmered since high-profile killings several years ago.

"When significant people get killed, that will always increase the retaliation,'' said Bryan Smith, Multnomah County's gang parole supervisor. "One shooting sparks another shooting.''

Other feuds have flared when members of warring sides happen to cross on a downtown street or follow drug deals gone bad, disputes over girlfriends, road rage, domestic fights or bar fights, police said.

Pastor Matt Hennessee of Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church, and other members of the city's Interfaith Peace and Action Collaborative said they're fed up with children losing their fathers or parents having to bury their children.

"This has been a pretty good run where almost every day there are shots fired, people ending up in the hospital or a number getting killed. It hurts your heart,'' Hennessee said. "We're calling for a ceasefire and a cooling off-period. And we're asking for those on the streets who have issues with one another to figure out other nonviolent ways to deal with those problems so we can keep our streets safe and communities whole.''

Police earlier this month transferred six more officers and six detectives to the Tactical Operations Division to help respond and investigate the shootings, using the model of their Gun Violence Response Team, formerly the Gang Violence Response Team.

"Our goal is to ensure every single shooting is getting assigned to somebody, looked at and touched,'' said Portland police Cmdr. Andy Shearer, head of the tactical division.

The bureau also is starting to hold twice-a-month shooting reviews, drawing leaders from every division within the Police Bureau, as well as supervisors from the District Attorney's Office, U.S. Attorney's Office, neighboring police agencies including Gresham, the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office and county parole and probation officers.

The regular reviews are intended to encourage investigators to step out of their separate silos to share information or tips. The group held its second shooting review Thursday afternoon.

"This is an effort to have everyone together to review every single shooting to help connect the dots,'' Shearer said.

Unlike years ago, there aren't just a handful of hot spots in the city where police can focus enforcement, investigators said. The violence often appears to occur where rivals happen to run into each other, whether it's two carloads of people driving by each other on Powell Boulevard in the middle of the day or after a bar lets out downtown.

"It's a different dynamic we're seeing than years ago,'' Shearer said.

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What's particularly disturbing is that two of the recent shootings – the Sept. 30 shooting of two men downtown and the Oct. 5 shooting outside the Moda Center -- occurred in front of police.

"I think that demonstrates a real brazenness,'' Shearer said. "The officers were in the right place, yet the shootings still occurred, and that I consider very unnerving.''

Police are working regularly with state and federal prosecutors to help identify and arrest the most violent offenders.

Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney Eric Zimmerman said he took two days off for a four-day vacation to Nebraska and was surprised to learn this week when he returned about the spate of fatal shootings during his brief absence.

"I come back and there's three new homicides,'' Zimmerman said. "That's really unusual.''

He said he can't pinpoint exactly what's spurring the violence, but he suspects the outbreak is coming from "a lot of old bad blood'' between gangs over past shootings, such as the 2013 shooting outside the Fontaine Bleau nightclub on Northeast Broadway of 30-year-old Durieul Joseph Harris or the 2014 shooting of Edward Jewell Paden Jr., 18, near Northeast 60th Avenue and Killingsworth.

Some observers also suspect the fatal shooting by police of Patrick "Pat Pat'' Kimmons, 27, in downtown in late September has heightened tensions on the street. Investigators said Kimmons shot two other men, including one of his friends.

"I know with Pat Pat's deal, people are angry,'' and perhaps that anger is displayed with guns and violence against others, Zimmerman said.

It's not clear what led to the shooting near the Moda Center.

Zimmerman is prosecuting the man accused of shooting Markell Jones outside the sports arena. Jones was a passenger in a car when a man fired into it, killing Jones and wounding the driver.

Police stationed outside the Moda Center ran after the suspect and arrested him about a mile away. The accused is a friend of Jones and may have thought he was shooting at someone else, investigators suspect.

"It was a dark, rainy night and he may have thought the car was associated with someone else and blasted on it,'' Zimmerman said.

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Multnomah County parole officers and federal pretrial service officers are working to keep close tabs on offenders and returning them to custody if they violate the conditions of their release.

"We're trying to flood the community as much as we can with our presence,'' said Smith, the manager of the county's gang parole unit. Six parole officers supervise about 270 offenders involved in gangs, he said.

The parole officers show up at offenders' homes to check on them, particularly if they've been associated in any way with any of the shootings, victims or witnesses, and reaching out to their families with support, Smith said.

Teondre Antonio Bonner, who was in downtown on the night Kimmons was shot, now faces a federal indictment, accused of drug trafficking and possessing a gun to further a drug crime. He initially was charged in Multnomah County Circuit Court after an Aug. 10 arrest, accused of possessing a kilogram of cocaine and a loaded revolver when stopped on a traffic violation in a rental car.

While on pretrial release in the state case, investigators said he violated the conditions of his release by meeting up with other gang members.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Leah Bolstad told a magistrate judge this week that Bonner was near the Kimmons' shooting at Southwest Third Avenue and Harvey Milk Street with other men known to have gang ties.

"Mr. Bonner's there. He should not be there while on pretrial supervision,'' Bolstad said, successfully arguing for Bonner to remain in custody while he awaits his federal trial.

Hennessee, who has called for other ceasefires in the past, said he recognizes that the faith leaders' plea may fall on deaf ears.

"Ultimately it may not be well-received,'' he said, "but it isn't going to stop us. I may not know a lot of the young men who are fighting with guns. But every human life matters and we're going to keep on making this appeal.''

-- Maxine Bernstein

mbernstein@oregonian.com

503-221-8212

@maxoregonian