It’s extremely unsettling whenever it appears that someone is shot and killed at random. And that is exactly what seems to have happened with the case of Barak Rosen, a 30 year old who was found shot dead in East Portland near the temporary Grant High School.
Rosen had lived in Portland for less than a year after moving from California. Did he make some serious enemies in that one year in Portland?
Was it a drug deal gone bad? A stupid argument that spiraled out of control?
Whenever violent crime happens seemingly out of nowhere for no obvious reason, it’s natural to make assumptions that something must have triggered it. After all, the idea that people are out there killing at random is terrifying and seems unrealistic.
Furthermore, sometimes it is true that even very normal & ordinary people can have unexpected double lives or secrets that get them in trouble. So it’s only human nature to assume that Rosen wasn’t the person people thought he was. He may have had, for example, a secret drug habit or some other problem that brought him in contact with some serious bad guys.
But the reality is that we just don’t know. It’s an eerie, mysterious, and violent end for someone, who by his parents accounts, was a completely normal person and who had only been in the area a short time.