Portland, Ore., police fatally shoot man at city park

PORTLAND, Ore. — An angry crowd gathered in a park in Portland, Ore., on Friday after police fatally shot a man while responding to reports of a person with a gun, the deputy police chief said.

Deputy Police Chief Chris Davis said at a news conference that a white man in his 30s was shot and killed by police, who fired both non-lethal projectiles and a gun at him. The man was pronounced dead at the scene in Lents Park, in the city’s southeast section.

Davis did not say how many shots were fired, how many officers were involved or if a gun was recovered at the scene. He did not know if the person pointed a weapon at police, he said. A witness at the scene said the man, who had removed his shirt and was blocking an intersection, appeared to be in a mental health crisis, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.

The shooting investigation was being hampered by a “decent-sized crowd of fairly aggressive people” who showed up at the park within two hours of the shooting. Some in the crowd of dozens of people tore down police tape, Davis said.

Portland has been the site of frequent protests, many involving violent clashes between officers and demonstrators, ever since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May. Over the summer, there were demonstrations for more than 100 straight days.

Mayor Ted Wheeler has decried what he described as a segment of violent agitators who detract from the message of police accountability and should be subject to more severe punishment.

Videos on social media show protesters skirmishing with police, who use mace to keep them back.

“We’ve had to summon just about every police officer in Multnomah County to keep this group far enough away … to preserve what we refer to in our business as the integrity of the scene, so that nobody who shouldn’t be in there goes in there,” he said, adding that the county sheriff’s office was also providing deputies to help.

Wheeler visited the scene and issued a statement urging Portland residents to “proceed with empathy and peace” while the investigation unfolds. Several vigils and protests were already planned for Friday night to address the police shooting deaths of 13-year-old Adam Toledo in Chicago and Daunte Wright in Minneapolis.

“These shootings always are traumatic for everyone involved and for our community, regardless of the circumstances,” he said. “I want to offer my sympathy to the individual involved and to their family. My thoughts also are with the officers who were involved.”

Todd Littlefield, who lives nearby, told the newspaper that he went to the park after he heard gunfire.

“I was just getting in my truck, and I heard a loud shot,” he told The Oregonian/Oregon Live.

Littlefield drove to the park and saw several officers standing behind trees and their cars, ordering a man to show his hands, he said.

Juan Chavez, an attendant at the nearby AM/PM gas station, said he saw a man standing in the middle of the intersection, blocking traffic, with his shirt off. He appeared to be unstable and disoriented, Chavez told the newspaper.

Police then showed up, and then the man entered the park before Chavez said he heard two gunshots.

The area where the shooting occurred is within the boundaries of operation for a new pilot project called Portland Street Response, which responds with a non-police team to calls about homelessness or people in mental health crisis.

The call would not be the kind that the pilot project would respond to, Davis said, because it involved reports of a person with a gun.