(Washington Insider Magazine) – OREGON, Portland (Transatlantic Today) – An armed man approached demonstrators outside his house in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday, killing one person and injuring five others.
Police claimed some of the protestors were armed, but they didn’t say if the gunfire was exchanged on both sides of the fight.
NBC NEWS reported that protesters assembled at the city’s Normandale Park around 8 p.m. to protest the officer-involved shooting of Amir Locke in Minneapolis amid a “no-knock” warrant operation in early February.
Responding officers discovered a dead girl or woman shortly after the shooting erupted, according to police. The Portland Police Bureau stated in a statement Sunday that 2 men and 3 women were rushed to hospitals in uncertain conditions.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler stated in a statement on Sunday that the community’s combined sadness and anger over the shooting reinforces his determination to do everything he can to prevent the gun crime that is wreaking havoc on the city.
Witnesses haven’t stepped forward, police claim, despite the fact that the violence occurred during a rally against police brutality.
Many of the Black and progressive groups have long chastised Portland police for what they perceive to be discriminatory policing. Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union said that Black individuals are heavily represented in police killings and that cops arbitrarily arrest political left-wing activists.
After a majority of police critics were taken into custody during the demonstration, the organization said in a declaration that the police bureau has long been used exclusively against liberal and left-wing demonstrators, continuous with their prejudices as mirrored in their lack of policing towards hateful and violent far-right organizations and militias.
“While we need more information about what transpired,” Police Commissioner Jo Anne Hardesty posted on twitter Sunday after the nighttime shooting, ”I can say that protesting for racial justice should never endanger those exercising their first amendment rights.”
In a statement issued Sunday, Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt stated that he will thoroughly evaluate the evidence and facts and prosecute everyone involved in the violence.