A 24-year-old man was gunned down in a busy North Portland neighborhood on a sunny, hot Monday afternoon as children played on nearby streets and in McCoy Park less than a block away.

Residents reported hearing up to 10 shots in what police described as a drive-by, gang-related shooting. They identified the man who was shot as Andrew Leon Coggins Jr. Relatives said he lived in Southeast Portland.

Police found Coggins lying on the side of North Fessenden Street just west of North Fiske Avenue in the New Columbia area after receiving a call about the shooting at 2:46 p.m. Coggins had collapsed partly in the street and on the curb.

His family gathered at the edge of the police tape at the scene, waiting for investigators to confirm that Coggins was the one who had died.



Just before 6 p.m., several in the group started sobbing loudly. "He's gone," one wailed, dropping to her knees.

Neighbors were disturbed by the violence and the brazenness of the daylight shooting.

A woman who gave her name only as Jennifer Z. said she heard a slew of gunshots and frantically started searching for her children, ages 9, 11, 13 and 14, who were playing outside.

She found her 9-year-old boy in an alley off Fessenden, then she saw a young man screaming for help.



"He was saying, 'That's my homeboy. Please, please help!'" she said.





She saw another man in his 20s, lying on the grass beside the curb. "I just got down and started pumping on his chest," she said.



She tried to rip off his black shirt and found a wound in his back.



"Come on, baby! Stay with me," she said she pleaded with him. "I squeezed his hand" and he held hers, she said.



She felt a pulse and tried to pump on his chest until medics arrived. "When I seen that poor kid, I just bent down and started helping," she said.



She said she didn't know Coggins or his friend. The two men had been standing beside a dark car parked on the street, its rear wheels jacked up. She said it looked as if it had broken down and the men were waiting for someone to help fix it.

Brenda Fisher, who lives in the 9400 block of Fiske near the intersection with Fessenden, was in her bedroom when gunshots rang out.



"It sounded like it was almost coming through my house ... that's how loud it was," Fisher said. She ran to her granddaughter's room and told her to get down on the floor.



"This is crazy. It's very scary! " Fisher said as residents gathered outside to see what happened.



Fisher's niece, Ashley Taylor, was about a block away with her two young children, ages 2 and 3, and heard 10 shots.



"I grabbed them and ran inside," Taylor said.



Elaine Roper was in McCoy Park with her 12-year-old granddaughter when they heard gunfire.

"We heard all the guns. We hit the ground," Roper said. "I think it's ridiculous."

The driver of a TriMet bus "just rolled up on it" and called police, said TriMet supervisor Lance Lawrence. The No. 4 bus, stopped on Fessenden, was held for examination of video images from the bus for possible use in the investigation.



Bryan Stratton was biking home from work when he saw his street blocked off. He's lived in the neighborhood for 10 years, he said.



"Unfortunately, it's been an often enough occurrence that you're not totally surprised," Stratton said.



Police dispatch reported officers were looking for a fleeing white four-door car, possibly an old Cadillac.

Mayor Charlie Hales, who serves as the city's police commissioner, said officers with the Crisis Response Team and gang outreach workers responded.

"This shooting reminds us that far, far too many people in our community are the victims of gun violence," Hales said. "Gun violence is a public health crisis, and we as a society need to address this complex epidemic."

-- Maxine Bernstein