More than a day after a man was shot and killed in downtown Portland Saturday night, as President Donald Trump supporters clashed with protesters against police, few details have emerged about what took place.
Police Chief Chuck Lovell urged people to not jump to conclusions about what led up to the shooting. What happened in Portland Saturday Protests were taking place, as they have for more than 90 consecutive nights, against racial injustice and police brutality. The protests started with the killing of George Floyd in May and were fueled again by last weekend’s shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin. A “Trump 2020 Cruise Rally in Portland,” started earlier in nearby Clackamas, Oregon, where a large group of Trump supporters and cars gathered, CNN affiliate KOIN reported. Video footage from KOIN showed pickup trucks with American flags, “Thin Blue Line” flags and Trump 2020 flags prominently displayed on the vehicles. After the rally, a line of cars, motorcycles and trucks made its way along the “Trump 2020 cruise rally route” which appeared to include the downtown Portland area, according to an image on a Facebook advertisement of the event. Portland police were aware of the rally and tried to keep the caravan out of the downtown area, Police Chief Chuck Lovell said at a news conference Sunday, but a group of the vehicles were able to “come into the downtown core.” The police tweeted Saturday that there had been “some instances of violence between demonstrators and counterdemonstrators.” Videos posted by a New York Times reporter showed fights breaking out between Trump supporters and the protesters.
