A man was shot and killed Saturday evening during a pro-Trump rally in downtown Portland.
Portland Police Bureau (PPB) say the unidentified victim died around 8:45 pm from a gunshot wound to the chest. Videos shared by reporters on the scene show a man lying on his back near SW 3rd and Alder, surrounded by officers and medics attempting to treat him.
A video posted on Facebook shows the minutes leading up to the shooting from across the street. The clip captures several people on a sidewalk in front of a parking garage shouting at each other before the sound of two gunshots go off, accompanied with a puff of smoke.
The shooting coincided with a pro-Trump car caravan winding its way through downtown Portland. It’s not immediately clear if the shooting was directly connected to this protest.
The caravan, dubbed a “Trump cruise rally,” met around 4 pm at the Clackamas Town Center parking lot. In the Facebook page for the pro-Trump event, organizers encouraged attendees to bring firearms with them, as long as they followed concealed carry laws.
After gathering at the shopping mall, several hundred vehicles—many waving large American and Trump 2020 flags—then drove to downtown Portland, where they were met by groups of counter-protesters. Portland police dressed in riot gear stood by as caravan members drove through groups of people in the street. Other drivers jumped out of their cars to confront counter-protesters on the street, some getting into fistfights.
One rally member turns to avoid counter-protesters but another drives right through them hitting several people. pic.twitter.com/i3aLRQg9tJ
— Cory Elia (@TheRealCoryElia) August 30, 2020
In photos of the scene viewed by the Mercury, the deceased man is seen with a “Thin Blue Line” patch on his shorts and wearing a hat emblazoned with the insignia of Patriot Prayer, a far-right group based in Vancouver. The group has a history of organizing demonstrations in downtown Portland that often turn violent. Videos from the scene show Patriot Prayer found Joey Gibson speaking to protesters on a sidewalk shortly after the shooting.
PPB has confirmed it is actively investigating the shooting as a homicide. A spokesperson for Mayor Ted Wheeler told the Mercury the mayor will comment on the incident Sunday morning.
The Mercury is closely following this story and will update this post as new information comes in.
Oh, wait, they murdered a white man. Wonder if they give a fuck? Kyle Rittenhouse murdered two white people, too.
So in Kenosha a conservative militia teenager kills 2 liberals. Now both sides are going to start bringing -and using- guns. This is a dangerous escalation. This is crazy. It has to stop. Mayor Wheeler get some balls. You have lost control of this situation. 30 day end of protests using a 10 PM curfew in the downtown area.
The mayor is not the problem. Why do these groups come to Portland? Oh right, because if they stayed where they lived there would be no one to rail against, no violence to incite.
These people are the same people who got Jeremy Christian riled up, so much so that he murdered people on the MAX train. These people are not Pro-Trump supporters. They are white supremacist terrorists. And it is the WST that are the gun toting, shooting and killing contingent. Meanwhile the Portland Police actively assault and harm people protesting. Portland Police slash people’s tires and smash their car windows, inflict bodily harm, and otherwise violate the rights of people engaged in exercising their First Amendment rights.
Nowhere does the Second Amendment of the Constitution say you get to go wherever you want, armed to the teeth, ready to incite violence, shoot and kill people, and pretend you are the victims. Enough of white males with guns killing people. Enough of the Police responding to people outraged and angry at the violence and murder committed by cops every single day against Black people while white people who walk around armed and shoot people in the street are not even stopped! Kyle Rittenhouse is and all of his ilk are seriously disturbed and violent domestic terrorists.
The racist violence in this state and nationwide is solely due to racist white people. And these racist white people are being egged on by Trump and his racist rhetoric (he doesn’t have to shoot anyone in the middle of the street, there are so many people willing to do it for him). The Proud Boys, the Patriot Prayers, Joey Gibson, and all of their ilk need to be treated like the Black Lives Matter protesters. They need to be tear gassed and beaten and taken off the streets by any means necessary. Enough bullshit. Enough pretending. Enough domestic terrorism on the streets of Portland and everywhere else aided and abetted, encouraged and incited, and ignored by the police.
And people wonder why the police need to be defunded into oblivion.
Fuck the United States of White Supremacist Terrorism.
The ONLY people inciting violence and causing harm are the cops murdering Black people and the white supremacist terrorists running around playing militia man and shooting whoever they want.
The person shot had a drop leg holster, which means he was probably armed with a pistol. He also appeared to have some sort of fixed blade knife on his belt. Best guess is that he armed up, went looking for trouble and got more than he could handle. If he had just stayed home, he would be alive today.
What Christina Rae (and the other two commenters) said.
I do hold the mayor (and local government) responsible, in that we’ve had ninety-plus days of protests and absolutely no action taken to address the concerns. A minor budget cut and some hand-wavey promises about forming committees to talk about the problems are not enough.
Want the protests to ramp down? Curb the PPA and PPB, clearly, decisively and publically.
and nothing of value was lost.