Two homeless men were shot this morning in what Portland police say was a random attack in Southeast Portland.

One man was shot in the chest. The other was grazed by a bullet.

The shooting happened on Southeast Belmont between Southeast 1st Avenue and Southeast 2nd Avenue. Lt. Robert King, a Portland police spokesman, said a witness who heard the shots called 9-1-1. One of the victims was in his late 50s; the other was in his early 40s.

The shooting took place under the Morrison Bridge in the industrial area of inner Southeast Portland, just a few blocks from the scene where a bouncer was gunned down over the weekend.

Half a dozen officers were scouring the scene for evidence early Wednesday. The men were sleeping next to Senvoy, a delivery company warehouse.

The man who was shot in the chest sustained life-threatening injuries, although was conscious and alert as he was transported to the hospital. Homicide detectives were investigating the shooting happened about 5 a.m.

"It appears to be random," King said. "I have never heard of anything like this."

The shots were fired from a black pickup truck. Police did not have a description of the suspects.

King said the homeless man shot in the chest is in critical condition but expected to survive.

Standing by the scene beneath the Morrison Bridge along Southeast Belmont, King said homeless people do tend to sleep in the area.

"This is a dry, safe place typically so it's really shocking for someone to shoot someone who is sleeping," King said.

A homicide division sergeant and detective remained at the scene.

Their preliminary investigation suggests that the shooting was random, and someone fired two gunshots at the sleeping men. Each victim was struck with one round.

"An individual fired two rounds striking two men who were asleep," King said.

Flat sheets of cardboard remained on the south sidewalk of Belmont, between 1st and 2nd Avenue -east of the railroad tracks - the spot where the two homeless men were asleep when shot.

"They're in their bedrolls, and they're literally sleeping," King said. "It really is awful and shocking."

Businesses in the area said they commonly see homeless people seeking shelter beneath the bridge, or even on their loading docks.

"It looks like tent city. They sleep in the docks and doorways," said Ed Wilson, who works for Airefco Inc., which backs up to Belmont Street.

"That's close. But you got to be crazy to start shooting someone sleeping," Wilson said.

Thurston Holmes, who works for City Liquidators, watched as police continue to examine the crime scene this morning.

Holmes said he always sees homeless people when he arrives for work in the morning. "It's the only shelter in the area from the rain," he said. "That's sad."

released a statement condemning the targeting of the homeless. He said people living on the streets are "particularly vulnerable" to violence. The city's 2011 Street Count of the city's homeless found that nearly half of those surveyed reported being attacked, he said.

"This shameful criminal act reminds us that everyone in our community deserves a safe and decent place to call home," he said.

this morning called the shooting a “heinous awful gun crime” that highlights the need for tough gun control laws in Oregon.

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“Another session of the state legislature is coming to conclusion without any meaningful gun safety law reform and we have too many illegal guns in the city.”

Marc Jolin, executive director of

, a non-profit that works with the homeless, was stunned by the attack.

"That is beyond anything I have heard happening in Portland before," he said. "It's horrible. It's unbelievable that someone would do something like this."

He said the areas under the Morrison and Hawthorne bridges are popular overnight spots for the city's homeless. He said Join's outreach workers often check up on homeless sleeping under those bridges, which offer shelter from the weather and are close to downtown services.

Jolin said homeless people, especially women, routinely report being victims of violence. "Sometimes that is violence among those who are homeless and sometimes it's violence people experience at the hands of non-homeless residents of the city."

The Rev. Chuck Currie, a longtime homeless advocate in Portland, said random attacks on those sleeping on the streets are nothing new. He said the National Coalition for the Homeless has urged Congress to make such assaults hate crimes.

"This has happened in other places but I have been working on these issues in Portland for 25 years and I have never heard anything quite like this before," he said.

He said young men typically are the perpetrators of violence against the homeless. "It's almost like a sport."

"We make people living on our streets invisible," he said. "We dehumanize them."

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