Portland Police are investigating after they responded to a shooting in downtown Saturday night and found a victim with a gunshot wound to the chest.
The shooting happened as protesters converged on the city for the 94th night in a row. Officers heard sounds of gunfire around 8:46 p.m., Portland Police said in a statement. When officers responded to the area of Southeast 3rd Avenue and Southwest Alder Street, they found the victim. Medical personnel determined the person was dead.
Police said they are not releasing suspect information at this time and are asking anyone who was a witness or has first-hand video of the shooting to contact investigators. The area has been secured as a crime scene and investigators are asking people to avoid it.
Fires were lit during protests Friday night in Portland.
Earlier in the night, police tweeted that there had been “some instances of violence between demonstrators and counterdemonstrators,” as a political rally caravanned through downtown Portland.
The tweet said officers had made some arrests and asked people to avoid downtown due to traffic from the political rally.
The traffic coincided with a planned “Trump 2020 Cruise Rally in Portland” that was advertised on Facebook. According to the posted event, participants were planning to gather at the Clackamas Town Center in Clackamas, Oregon, line up the cars, motorcycles and trucks for the rally and travel the “Trump 2020 cruise rally route.” An image posted on Facebook shows it appeared to include the downtown Portland area.
On Saturday afternoon, a large group of Pro-Trump supporters and cars gathered at the Clackamas Town Center, according to reporting from CNN affiliate KOIN. Video recorded by KOIN showed pickup trucks with American flags, “Thin Blue Line” flags and Trump 2020 flags prominently displayed on the vehicles.
People protesting police brutality spray graffiti and start fires at the Portland Police Union building on Friday.
Later in the evening, New York Times reporter Mike Baker posted video from downtown Portland. In at least one video, protesters standing on a street corner are seen screaming and tossing items at people in a stopped white pickup truck with an American flag and the words “All Live Matter” written on a back driver’s side window; the truck appears to be part of the Trump cruise rally. One of the protesters is seen lighting a Trump flag on fire as the caravan begins to drive off.
A man riding in the bed of a passing black pickup truck displaying a blue “Oregon for Trump” flag and an American flag can be seen pointing and firing a paintball gun at the protesters standing on the corner. As a green pickup truck passes, someone riding in the bed can be seen spraying something toward protesters. As the angle of the video shifts, the riders in the black truck can be seen releasing some form of spray. Passengers riding in the green truck duck as the other protesters toss something at them.
Other videos posted by the New York Times reporter showed fights breaking out between the Pro-Trump supporters and the protesters.
Story cited here.
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