Multnomah County will keep its flagship library shuttered to the public a while longer following a shooting Tuesday that left one man dead in downtown Portland just outside the building.

The announcement Thursday came with renewed promises from library leaders to review security protocols at the troubled Central Library to help reduce longstanding safety issues and drug use. The library is also connecting employees who witnessed or were impacted by the deadly shooting just outside the branch to “trauma-related services,” officials said.

“When the worst kind of tragedy happens near a library, it has profound effects on all of us,” Director of Libraries Annie Lewis said in a statement.

The library will reopen to the public Saturday, officials said. Jackie Tate, president of Multnomah County’s largest employee union AFSCME Local 88, said that staff were still scheduled to work Thursday, but no patrons were allowed in. Library employees were offered an optional “trauma-intervention program” and union representatives came to support employees, Tate said.

The fatal exchange occurred around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday at Southwest 10th Avenue and Yamhill Street. Police responded to reports of a shooting and arrived to find one man with gunshot wounds. Officers eventually tracked down the suspect, identified as 26-year-old Hassan Muse, six blocks from the scene and arrested him.

The victim, still unidentified by police, was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said. Muse is accused of second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon.

A probable cause affidavit released Wednesday said Muse was seen on surveillance video inside the library just before the confrontation. Witness accounts and video footage show the two men had an exchange before Muse pulled a gun out of a green grocery bag and shot the man twice outside the library, according to the affidavit.

At a chaotic Wednesday court appearance, Muse claimed that wasn’t his name and that he was a sovereign citizen. His attorney, Lawrence Taylor, entered not guilty pleas on his behalf.

Muse hadn’t caused a security concern while in the library, Multnomah County library spokesperson Shawn Cunningham told The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Safety has long been an issue at the downtown branch, a gathering place for the city’s homeless population and a hot spot for drug use. The Central Library has struggled with overdoses, and librarians there and elsewhere have reported feeling unsafe at work in the past.

The county became so concerned over employees’ exposure to fentanyl and other drugs that officials called the federal government to weigh in. Of 95 employees interviewed by federal officials across three library branches, 34 said they had been exposed to drugs at least once from June 2023, to June 2024, according to a May report from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

In the wake of the shooting, the central branch will bolster security foot patrols, prioritize monitoring the library cameras and redouble efforts to report drug use, officials said. Four security officers are stationed at the library at default, according to the county.

Cunningham said library leaders made the call to close the library, with support from Chair Jessica Vega Pederson.

“The library’s goal is to support staff in multiple ways after a traumatic incident occurs,” he wrote in a statement.

— Austin De Dios covers Multnomah County politics, programs and more. Reach him at 503-319-9744, [email protected] or @AustinDeDios.