Portland shooting suspect left note, but no word on motive

PORTLAND — The man suspected of shooting nine people and himself outside a Portland nightspot left a note in which he bequeathed his car and PlayStation 3 to a roommate and said he was sorry.

In the note, released by Portland police Monday, Erik S. Ayala, 24, meticulously lists off his bank-account information and how his roommate can get top dollar for the game station.

"I'm sorry to put all this on you buddy, good luck," Ayala wrote.

Portland police are still without a motive for the Saturday-night shooting, which killed two girls, injured seven other people and has become an international tragedy because six of the victims were exchange students.

At a news conference Monday, Portland Police Chief Rosie Sizer said the rampage has rattled Portlanders' sense of safety and security and "echoes most Europeans' fear about gun violence."

"My hope is that people can compartmentalize this," Sizer said.

Martha "Tika" Paz de Noboa, a 17-year-old Peruvian exchange student, who had come to the U.S. to learn English, and 16-year-old Ashley Wilks, a local sophomore, died after Ayala fired into the crowd outside an under-21 nightclub, police said.

Ayala shot himself in the head and was in critical condition in a Portland hospital, police said. Three other victims also were being treated at hospitals as of Monday afternoon.

Detective Mark Slater said the downtown shooting turned to "chaos in the street."

Slater said police found Ayala's car in downtown Portland, and they used it to identify him. They've since searched his home, where they found a case for the 9-mm semi-automatic gun used in the shooting, ammunition and the note he left for his roommate and family.

"To my friends and family: I am sorry. And to my friend: I am especially sorry," Ayala wrote. "I know it's not much consolation but as my friend and roommate you are entitled to everything that I own. Maybe these things can bring in a few bucks. Good luck in this [expletive] world. Erik."

Ayala's roommate, Mike Delisle, told The Oregonian that Ayala didn't typically go to dance clubs, did not own a gun and never showed an interest in firearms.

"I didn't see it coming," he said.

Ayala's family also was blindsided, Slater said. "They're upset. They're trying to deal with it. Trying to make sense."

Sgt. Richard Austria, who is in charge of Portland's homicide unit, said the investigation is continuing into what may have prompted Ayala.

"We are less than 48 hours into this, so there's a lot of information still to be learned," he said. "What we do know is this was not a targeted incident."

Police said there appeared to be no link between Ayala and the victims.

Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who oversees the Police Department, called the incident "an international tragedy that has taken the lives of two bright women."

Police and local school officials have identified the five wounded exchange students as Ana Zambrano Soledispa, 18, of Ecuador; Gonzalo Vasquez Orozco, 18, of Guatemala; Trista Chang, 18, of Taiwan; Susanna DeSousa, 18 of Italy; and Anne Sophie Rialland, 16, of France.

Two other injured victims are from the Portland area: Jalontae Howard, 16, a Gresham high-school student, and Brad Yoast, the general manager of Kells Irish Restaurant & Pub, next door to The Zone nightclub.

Wilks was a sophomore at Clackamas High School.

Rotary officials say De Noboa and Wilks were in a group of exchange students at The Zone to celebrate a birthday. The Oregon girl planned to study abroad next year in France or Spain.

Scott Bieber, the youth-protection officer for the Rotary district that includes parts of northern Oregon and southern Washington, says the organization plans to provide trauma counseling for the students who are part of their exchange program as well as their families.

He said Rotary officials will likely review precautions it encourages students to take while on exchange in the U.S., although there was no way the organization could have protected them from Saturday's shooting.

"Obviously, there are going to be some concerns," he said. "It's hard to think that we would do anything different without letting them have the experience of being an exchange student in America."

De Noboa was a student at a high school in White Salmon, Wash., said Superintendent Dale Palmer. She had moved from the Peruvian city Arequipa in September and planned to stay through the end of the school year, he said.

Staff "would try to speak English to her and she would say, 'No, no, English,' " Palmer said. "I'm sure that she was well on her way to achieving her goal."

She was quiet, he said, although he did not know if that trait was the result of a language barrier. She was not involved in any extracurricular activities, he said, but he learned she liked art and salsa dancing.

"We are very saddened by this," he said.

De Noboa lived in Arequipa with her mother, Martha Delgado Lozada. Delgado did not answer repeated phone calls from the AP.

An Arequipa-based journalist for the newspaper Correo, told the AP that the girl's uncle said Martha Delgado plans to fly to the U.S. to bring the remains of her daughter home.

Cindy Garrison of the West Linn-Wilsonville School District said Rialland was released from a Portland hospital several hours after the shooting and is on crutches. She has not returned to school.

School officials reported that Howard was released from the hospital.

Details about the medical conditions of the other students were not immediately available.