Portland Police Release Name Of Mother Shot To Death Sunday Night

PORTLAND, OR —It was just after 10:30 Sunday night. Adau Duop was sitting in the passenger seat of the family's SUV. Her fiancé was driving. The couple's two boys – a 1-year-old and a 5-year-old, were sitting, strapped in in the back seat.

In the back of the SUV, the family's groceries for the week.

They needed to go shopping and didn't have someone to take care of the kids so they took them with them.

Duop was a refugee as is her fiancé. She's from South Sudan whose whose mother brought her here when she was 13-years-old. He is from Somalia. Both had experienced hardship so taking their kids grocery shopping was no big deal.

They were stopped at a red light at 128th and Foster. Almost home.

The light turns and Duop's fiancé starts to drive forward. At that moment, another SUV, drives up on the driver side. The SUVs stay together for a brief moment. The second SUV speeds away.

The one carrying Duop and her family crosses lanes, coming to a stop in front of the Foster Plaza Apartments.

In the brief moment that the SUVs are next to each other, one or more persons had opened fire, filling the Duop family's SUV with bullets.

People who had been driving stop. They run from their cars to the family. People run from the apartment building to the family. Everyone wants to help.

There is nothing that they can do for Duop. She is dead.

Her fiancé is shot and will survive. Their 1-year-old is shot in the arm. The 5-year-old is shot in the leg.

As people wait for the police to arrive, it takes about 5 minutes, they do what they can, directing traffic away from the SUV filled with a family of gunshot victims.

Asked if the kids will be ok, one official simply told Patch that, "they will survive. Will they be ok? They are one and five. They were both shot. Their mom is dead. Their dad was shot. Will they be ok? I'm not even doing to venture a guess."

The shooting was captured on at least one video. Police are going through that video, they are talking with witnesses. They are talking with people who know the family, trying to figure out what happened.

One person who knows them is Abdikadir Mohamud fromd the Center for African Immigrants and Refugees Organization in Portland.

The family gets services from CAIRO. Their older child gos to school there.

Abdikadir describes him as "kind, respectful, and one of the sweetest kids in our program. When he comes into the classroom, he may be quiet at first but his smile brightens up our room."

CAIRO has started a GoFundMe to raise money for the family, for funeral expenses, for food, for medical bills.

The children were released from the hospital on Thursday into the care of a family member.

Portland police say that anyone with information about this incident is asked to please contact Detective William Winters at William.Winters@portlandoregon.gov 503-823-0466, or Detective Jason Koenig at Jason.Koenig@portlandoregon.gov 503-823-0889. The case number is 22-48396.