
An apartment building at 12 Eleanor St. in Portland on Tuesday, where police found several bullet holes after witnesses called 911 late Monday night to report they had heard four or five loud bangs. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald
Portland police found several suspected bullet holes in an apartment building Monday night after reports of shots being fired in the neighborhood.
Witnesses called 911 shortly before midnight to report they had heard four or five loud bangs near 12 Eleanor St., a residential area around Morrill’s Corner. Responding officers found several bullet holes, including some in the siding of the building and at least one that had passed through a window, according to Portland police.
Police department spokesperson Brad Nadeau said a similar call was made to that address on Oct. 13, when a gas line was pierced by a bullet. There have been no arrests made in that shooting, and it was unclear Tuesday whether the two shootings are related, Nadeau said.
The quiet street branching off of Forest Avenue has a handful of multifamily homes. Most neighbors who answered their door Tuesday afternoon said they didn’t hear gunshots the previous night. Some said the shots were much quieter than the shooting in October, so they thought the shooting was farther away.
One woman, who declined to give her name out of concern for her safety, said she’s lived on Eleanor Street for about 12 years and hadn’t seen any violence like this until the October incident. She said she plans to get security cameras because she’s worried about her children.
“I really hope they catch who did it,” she said.
Since September, Portland police have responded to a total of 17 calls about shots fired that didn’t result in injuries, according to the department. There were three such shootings in September, six in October and seven in December.
At the end of December, police responded to two separate but similar reports of gunshots. More than a dozen rounds hit an apartment building on Cumberland Avenue, and a few days later, a parked car on Washington Avenue was found riddled with bullet holes.
Police say the investigation into the Eleanor Street shooting is ongoing and are asking anyone to has information to call 207-874-8575 or text the keyword PPDME and a message to 847411.
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