A shooting among the warring factions of Portland’s gangs left an innocent man dead and the killer sentenced Friday to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 52½ years.

Marshawn Edwards, a member of the Rollin’ 60s Crips, was aiming at two rival Bloods when he sprayed shots into Silver Dollar Pizza in Northwest Portland just before closing time on Sept. 24, 2021.

Edwards, now 27, wounded one of his intended targets, but errant bullets fatally struck 34-year-old Jacob “Jake” Knight-Vasquez, who had popped in for a beer after finishing his shift across the street at the Blue Moon Tavern. A third man, an Intel employee, also was wounded in the shooting.

Before police arrested Edwards in February 2022, he peppered a house with bullets from a machine gun during a shootout outside another bar and then shot at but missed a man he mugged downtown.

The friends and family of Knight-Vasquez said they’ve been set adrift in mourning.

“He was and will always be remembered for his kind heart,” his fiancé, Nikolas Tejeda, said in a statement read in court. “I wish this pain on nobody.”

The youngest of eight children born in Bakersfield, California, Knight-Vasquez moved to Portland with his fiancé in 2019 and found an apartment, employment and friends within a few blocks of the Nob Hill neighborhood.

His older sister, Wendy Vasquez-Osborn, recalled that the two were so inseparable growing up that she was often mistaken for his mother. She went from carrying Knight-Vasquez to walking him to kindergarten just before she left for college.

“Our lives have been shattered,” Vasquez-Osborn said.

Knight-Vasquez had no connection to Edwards, who happened to be in the area when he stopped and drew a bead on two enemies, rapper Drae Steves and DeMarcus Davis, as they played ping pong inside the Silver Dollar.

Davis — a member of a Bloods set known as the Loc’d Out Pirus, according to a prosecution memo — pulled out his own gun but was wounded and didn’t return fire. The 33-year-old Vancouver resident is now being held in the Washington County Jail on a first-degree murder charge in the 2022 killing of Gerald Randle.

Randle and his younger brother were found shot dead at a hotel near Washington Square Mall that May in Tigard. Police haven’t detailed how the shooting occurred.

Steves, a Woodlawn Park Blood whose legal name was DeAndrae Stephens, was killed in another gang shooting in the Goose Hollow neighborhood in December 2021.

Defense attorney Edie Rogoway sought the mandatory minimum punishment of life with a chance of parole in 25 years, noting in a court memo that Edwards’ parents were 15 when he was born and expected him to help out with money for rent and food when he was still a child.

Edwards lettered in football at Parkrose High School and went on to attend Midland University in Nebraska before dropping out and returning home to a bad crowd, Rogoway wrote.

Multnomah County Circuit Judge Jenna Plank said Edwards had undoubtedly been dealt a “bad hand” but that there was no excusing his actions.

“All these victims were strangers to you,” Plank said. “Somewhere along the way that piece of humanity was lost.”

She imposed the 52½-year minimum sentence, ruling Edwards eligible for time off for good behavior during the last five years of his sentence.

Edwards stroked his chin during much of the hearing but didn’t address the judge on the advice of his attorney. He is filing a closely watched appeal arguing that DNA evidence from a rape investigation was improperly entered into a law enforcement database.

Investigators matched Edwards’ DNA to shell casings found at the three crime scenes and presented that evidence during a December jury trial.

—Zane Sparling covers breaking news and courts for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach him at 503-319-7083, zsparling@oregonian.com or @pdxzane.

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