A police officer fatally shot a man outside a motel in Portland, Oregon on Thursday. The incident infuriated some Antifa activists, who gathered to protest at the scene and then clashed with officers.
The disturbance outside Motel 6 in Portland’s Lloyd District happened on Thursday evening after a deadly confrontation in the hotel’s parking lot. The Portland Police Bureau (PPB) said officers were called to the hotel for a welfare check on a white man. The encounter somehow led to an “officer involved shooting.” The victim was transported to a local hospital, where he died, the statement said.
The PPB offered no further details of the incident, but local media reports said the police offered to take the man to hospital and wanted to pat him down before allowing him into the ambulance. He reportedly got agitated and came at the officers with a screwdriver. Some eyewitness accounts claimed the man was armed with a knife and was running away from the cops when he was shot.
There were also claims on social media that the police killed an unarmed person of color, which the police denied on Twitter. A group of some 50 people, who appeared to be Antifa, gathered at the scene, shouting angry insults at the officers and making noise with squeaky pig toys.
Police tell the group to back up, this is their response: pic.twitter.com/8wg1sMgmB8
After a police shooting at the Motel 6 on NE Holliday st. Near the Convention Center. Portland Police push protesters away from the crime scene using pepper spray before halting and holding formation. #PortlandProtests#Portland#PDXpic.twitter.com/XBeshdle77
The stand-off soon escalated into clashes, with police deploying anti-riot weapons against the protesters.
pic.twitter.com/wFua1EgbbY
Portland police advanced just now on protesters outside a Motel 6 where police shot a man earlier today Crowd control munitions in use at active crime scene pic.twitter.com/m4k0INNjwI
PPB riot line move in & mace community members that have gathered outside the crime scene where a man was shot by PPB tonight. From my viewpoint, there was no escalation from the crowd that warranted this use of force. A few water bottles were thrown after they maced the crowd. pic.twitter.com/53iKxLLsLm
The PPB seemed to blame the activists for triggering the outburst of violence, saying a female officer’s baton was grabbed by the protesters, who tried to pull her towards the crowd.
Chief Chuck Lovell said the shooting happened during “a very difficult and dynamic situation that no officer wants to face,” and pledged to conduct a full and thorough investigation of what had happened.
Portland has endured some of the most intense and persistent protests during and after last year’s nationwide movement against police brutality and racism in the US. Earlier this month, the city’s rapid response unit, which is tasked with managing riots, had to be disbanded after around 50 officers refused to volunteer for the job.
The mass walkout followed an indictment of one of the team’s members, Officer Corey Budworth, on fourth-degree assault charges stemming from an incident during a declared riot last August.
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