Speeches downtown followed by people throwing projectiles and lighting fires

Portland Police Badge

July 28, 2020 02:10

July 27, 2020 at about 9:07 p.m. a group of people marched downtown then stopped and blocked SW 3rd Avenue between SW Madison Street and SW Salmon Street. People delivered speeches for over an hour, while others staged shields along the base of a fence surrounding the west side of the Mark O. Hatfield U. S. Federal Courthouse. A large fire burned where the Elk statue used to stand.

At about 10:20 p.m. hundreds concentrated along SW 3rd Avenue outside the courthouse. They wore gas masks and helmets and carried signs, hockey sticks, golf clubs, umbrellas, leaf blowers and fireworks. People started a fire inside the fence and continually added wood, garbage and other debris to build it up. People threw rocks, bottles and other objects and launched fireworks over the fence and at the door of the courthouse. This activity went on for almost two hours.

At about 12:12 a.m., July 28, 2020, a person threw a Molotov cocktail, or similar destructive device, against the front door of the courthouse which burst into a fireball when it struck the building causing a report to be heard and felt more than a block away. The crowd activity continued as before.

The crowd began being dispersed at about 1:00 a.m. By about 1:30 a.m. the remaining people wandered around the blocks adjacent to Lownsdale Square Park, and slowly left the area. Portland Police did not participate in dispersing the crowd or deploy any CS gas.

Portland Police detained one juvenile at about 12:35 a.m., near SW 4th Avenue and SW Yamhill Street. Officers checked the area following reports that people were walking down the middle of the street throwing objects at passing cars. The juvenile, a Gresham resident, will be referred to the juvenile court for Criminal Mischief II and Disorderly Conduct II.

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