Warm Springs teen, moving to the coast, wounded in Hwy. 26 shooting that family says was an ambush

Grandfather was driving him to Lincoln City to live with older sister, who got a chilling text: 'I got shot'

PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) – JaDe Smith says she was at work in Lincoln City last Thursday evening, waiting for her younger brother Yisidro Greene, 17, and grandfather to arrive from Warm Springs, when her phone started buzzing.

She didn’t think they’d made the trip that fast, and thought, “something weird is going on,” so she checked the phone, first finding a missed call.

Around 5:40 p.m., she had texted Yisidro: “Have you left already? Be safe.”

And shortly after 7 came the shocking reply: “I got shot by somebody, going to Portland by ambulance.”

As it turned out, he was flown by Life Flight to Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland, having survived what the family says was an ambush shooting by the driver of a vehicle that stopped in front of them on Highway 26 near Government Camp.

Yisidro's grandfather, Robert Smith, and his friend Mona were driving the teen to the coast so he could move in with JaDe at her new apartment, with all involved hoping that would mean a better, safer life for him.

They planned to enroll the former Madras High senior at Taft High School, so he could join the football team (albeit in mid-season).

Yisidro was riding in the front passenger seat of their mother’s pickup truck – Smith said their mother initially planned to make the drive but decided not to - with his grandfather at the wheel and Mona in the back seat.

Smith said the move to the coast was worked out after she learned from their mother that electricity in their house had been shut off a while ago. Meanwhile, Smith said she had moved from Salem to Lincoln City less than a month ago.

“Every week, he’d say, ‘Hey, Sister, think I can move in?’” she recalled on Monday while at the Oregon State Police office to pick up her brother’s belongings.

OSP Capt. Kyle Kennedy provided limited initial details on Monday, confirming that troopers are investigating a shooting that occurred around 6 p.m. last Thursday on Highway 26 near milepost 55, in which a 17-year-old male was the only reported injury.

“Investigators are not seeing public assistance at this time,” Kennedy said, adding that he had no further information to release yet.

Smith said on a fundraising page for family expenses that the pickup was about a mile from Government Camp, where the highway narrows from two lanes to one, “when a car in front of them came to a full stop. They made the attempt to go around the car, but an individual exited the driver’s side and started to shoot at the truck” – which she said was hit 3-4 times.

Smith said one bullet went through a seat, one through a window and the other struck Yisidro in the arm, traveling up to his chest. She said doctors told the family “the distance between his aorta and the bullet is ‘immeasurable' -- that’s how close it is.”

Surgery is possible, but for now, “he’s doing good,” Smith said, adding that the situation is “so very stressful – it’s heartbreaking.”

Smith expects her brother to undergo physical therapy as soon as he's able: “Hopefully, he heals up in time to play baseball,” she said.