A person was shot dead on Saturday in the U.S. city of Portland following clashes between Black Lives Matter protesters and supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump, police said.
The Oregon city has been an epicentere of BLM protests since the police killing of unarmed black man George Floyd in Minnesota in late May, and according to local media a “caravan of hundreds of cars” of Trump supporters also converged there on Saturday.
Portland police said officers answered reports of gunfire as violence erupted during a political rally involving hundreds of vehicles “caravaning throughout downtown Portland.”
“They responded and located a victim with a gunshot wound to the chest. Medical responded and determined that the victim was deceased,” the force said in a statement. OregonLive reported “clashes” and “tense moments” between demonstrators and counter-protesters, although police did not say whether the shooting was related to the rally.
Probe under way
The shooting occurred at around 8.45 p.m. (0445 GMT Sunday) downtown, police said later in a statement, adding a homicide investigation was under way.
Mr. Trump spent Sunday morning tweeting and retweeting dozens of posts showing or discussing what was purported to be violence in Democratic-run cities, and especially Portland.
He attacked the city’s Mayor Ted Wheeler for refusing help from the National Guard, which he said “could solve these problems in less than 1 hour.”
Mr. Wheeler shared an open letter to Mr. Trump on Friday denouncing the President’s “politics of division and demagoguery.”
“Portlanders are onto you. We have already seen your reckless disregard for human life in your bumbling response to the COVID pandemic,” he wrote. “And we know you’ve reached the conclusion that images of violence or vandalism are your only ticket to reelection.” Mr. Wheeler described the protesters who had been peaceful as part of a “proud progressive tradition” in Portland but condemned violence and vandalism.
Trump to visit Kenosha
Mr. Trump will travel next week to the Midwestern city where African American Jacob Blake was shot multiple times in the back by a white policeman, sparking a nationwide wave of protest.
Mr. Trump will meet police in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday and “survey damage from recent riots” triggered by Mr. Blake’s shooting last weekend, White House spokesman Judd Deere said on Saturday.
Mr. Blake took at least half a dozen shots in front of his small children as he tried to get into a car, in an incident that has prompted an outpouring of anger over yet another shooting of a black man by police. Ms. Deere did not say if Mr. Trump would meet the family of Mr. Blake, 29, who was left paralysed from the waist down.
3 nights of violence
Kenosha, about an hour’s drive from Chicago, saw three nights of violence after the Blake shooting as protesters set fire to buildings and cars. Major U.S. sports leagues including the NBA were forced to suspend play as African American and other players outraged by the shooting joined the latest national wave of anger over racial injustice and police misconduct.
On Friday tens of thousands of protesters thronged the U.S. capital for a mass march marking the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s historic “I have a dream” speech on August 28, 1963. It was dubbed “Get Your Knee Off Our Necks,” in reference to Floyd.
