Susan Dowiasz

Jose Martinez was confused when he returned to his pickup from a Northeast Portland convenience store Wednesday and saw a woman yelling at his passenger.

The woman, Susan Dowiasz, lives in the house in front of which Martinez parked his pickup and attached trailer near Northeast Alberta Street and 82nd Avenue. The neighborhood has no sidewalks.

Dowiasz was so angry that Martinez said he couldn't make out everything she was saying to him and his work colleague in the pickup. He got the hint when Dowiasz kept gesturing toward a no parking sign on her property.

Martinez said he didn't see the sign when he parked. He estimated being in the store for two minutes. He said he insisted that he was parked on the street and was now leaving. Dowiasz ran to her garage. He didn't expect to see her again.

Martinez got back into his pickup, gave his colleague change he owed her and raised his key to put it in the ignition.

"Then I saw her come back. Then I saw the gun in her hand," Martinez, 43, of Gresham told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Friday. "I thought, 'Come on, really?' I thought maybe she was trying to intimidate us, and then I heard the gun go off and thought, 'We better go.'"

Martinez believes he heard two or three gunshots. He said he drove a few miles before stopping to call police. No one was hurt.

Dowiasz, 71, was later arrested. She faces accusations of unlawful use of a weapon, reckless endangering and unlawful discharge of a firearm in the city. She was released from the Multnomah County Detention Center on Thursday, jail records show.

Dowiasz did not immediately return a message seeking comment Friday.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Dowiasz admitted to Portland police officers she retrieved her gun during her encounter with Martinez and said she felt threatened. She denied pointing the gun at anyone and said no shots were fired, the court papers said.

A 9-year-old neighbor told police he saw Dowiasz emerge from her home, point the gun and fire, the affidavit said.

An officer watched surveillance footage from the store, and it showed Martinez go into the business and return to his pickup, Dowiasz going toward the pickup, then to her house and then "charging from the house" to the pickup with a handgun in her right hand and her arm extended, according to the affidavit.

Investigators found an area on the ground near her home where it appeared a bullet hit.

"After being questioned more (Dowiasz) told officers that one shot did go off," the affidavit said.

Martinez said he didn't threaten Dowiasz. He said he went there with his colleague after work in construction and bought a drink at the store to make change out of a $20 bill. He said he's still in disbelief over the shooting, believing the interaction was so minor with Dowiasz that even when he saw the gun, he didn't think it would end in gunfire.

"I do kind of laugh now at the craziness of it, but it was scary, and it wasn't OK," Martinez said. "I have three kids at home, and things could have ended another way. We were all lucky no one got hurt."

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com

503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey