Who killed 50 year old Edward \Ed\ James Black in 1991? Edward “Ed” James Black, a 50-year-old African-American male from Portland, Oregon, was shot in the pre-dawn quiet of May 5, 1991. Around 3:15 a.m., neighbors along the 4950 block of North Kerby Avenue startled awake to a single gunshot. When they stepped outside to look, they found the 50-year-old man collapsed in the street and bleeding heavily. First responders could not save him; he died there from the wounds he suffered in the shooting.
In the weeks before the killing, the 50-year-old male was well known in the neighborhood. He had been living out of a van nearby and, according to accounts gathered by investigators, he sometimes drank to excess and could become belligerent when intoxicated. The familiarity of his presence along those blocks—his van, his routines, the faces that recognized him—only sharpened the shock of the sudden gunfire and the stillness that followed.
Police treated the case as a homicide from the outset, but the early morning scene yielded few immediate answers about who pulled the trigger or why. Despite the proximity of neighbors who heard the shot and came out quickly, investigators did not announce any suspect description or motive. No arrests followed, and with time the investigation moved to the Cold Case Homicide Unit, where it remains open. Authorities have repeatedly asked the public for tips and directed witnesses to call detectives or submit information anonymously through Crime Stoppers, which has advertised a reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to an arrest.
Years later, the name of the 50-year-old male endures in city cold case listings and memorial pages, a brief entry marking a life cut down on a North Portland street. The absence of a suspect or an arrest has left only the stark facts of the hour, the location, and the fatal wound—and the hope that someone, somewhere, still holds the missing detail that could name the shooter and close a case that has remained unsolved since that morning in 1991.
