A man fatally shot on a Portland street amid clashes between Trump supporters and protesters was a “good friend” of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer, founder Joey Gibson said Sunday.
It was not immediately clear whether the shooting Saturday night was related to the confrontations, police said. Patriot Prayer supporters have frequently clashed with Black Lives Matters protesters in the embattled city since Memorial Day, when the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis while in police custody prompted protests nationwide.
President Donald Trump responded with a Twitter barrage Sunday aimed at protesters, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden and top Democrats in Congress.
Videos of Saturday’s shooting circulated on social media, and Portland police pleaded with the public to aid the investigation.
“If anyone can provide information about this case, I ask them to please reach out to our detectives,” Police Chief Chuck Lovell said. “This violence is completely unacceptable, and we are working diligently to find and apprehend the individual or individuals responsible.”
Police said a caravan of hundreds of vehicles carrying Trump supporters from a rally in nearby Clackamas Saturday slowly rolled through downtown. Officers responded to fights, disturbances and collisions and made some arrests Saturday night. By around 8:30 p.m. local time, the caravan had left downtown. The shooting took place about 15 minutes later.
Photos from the scene showed the victim wearing a Patriot Prayer hat. Gibson said he arrived at the scene shortly after it happened and was briefly corralled in a nearby gas station by angry protesters.
“I can’t say much right now. All I can do is verify that he was a good friend and a supporter of Patriot Prayer,” Gibson said
Trump took to Twitter on Sunday, again urging local leaders to call in the National Guard. Residents of Portland and other cities led by Democrats are disgusted with their leadership and with top Democrats in Washington, Trump said.
“Wheeler is incompetent, much like Sleepy Joe Biden,” Trump tweeted. “This is not what our great Country wants. They want Safety & Security, and do NOT want to Defund our Police!”
Biden issued a statement Sunday condemning the “violence of every kind by anyone, whether on the left or the right.” He challenged Trump to do so as well.
Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., national co-chairman for the Biden campaign, was among Democrats pushing back hard Sunday. Richmond, said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that Trump “keeps talking about what Biden’s America would look like. Well, this is Trump’s America.”
Gov. Kate Brown said Trump has “encouraged division and stoked violence.”
Wheeler is drawing scrutiny in his own city. Several civil rights groups and protest coalitions called on Wheeler to resign.
“This could all have been prevented,” said Bobbin Singh, executive director of the Oregon Justice Resource Center. “There were 100 different decisions that could have led us on a different path.”
Trump has repeatedly railed against Portland’s leadership. At the Republican National Convention last week, the president held up Portland as an example of a far-left city drowning in violence – and in need of his law-and-order, get-tough policies.
About 1,000 cheering, flag-waving Trump supporters gathered in Clackamas, Oregon, on Saturday.
“This rally is not a protest,” Alex Kyzik, an organizer, told the crowd before the caravan rolled to Portland. “This rally is a celebration of a great president.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., on ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday, cited an increase in hate crimes and growing dissatisfaction with social injustice during Trump’s tenure in the White House.
“It’s happening all over the country. It is happening under Donald Trump’s watch,” Klobuchar said. “We are not safe in Donald Trump’s America.”
No doubt the protester crowd has assassins embedded to
shoot patriots the ‘jews’ want gone. Blame it on the riot.
Like Ukraine.
-flek
This is why our people should stay away from this garbage on the streets, its a chicken shit waste of time, when the time does come, your not going to see us coming, but your going to feel us, count on it.
These torrey ass hat clowns are useless.