Protesters in Portland broke the windows of a county building, sprayed lighter fluid inside and set fire to a demonstration that began Tuesday night and ended Wednesday morning with clashes with police, officials said.
The fire at the Multnomah building damaged the county’s county office for community involvement, where Oregon’s first gay marriage took place and where protective gear was scattered to try to spread the word. to prevent coronavirus, said Multnomah County President Deborah Kafoury.
“This is the heart of our province, where people come to our community to get married, get their passports and celebrate their cultural traditions and diversity,” she said in a statement.
Demonstrations that are often violent have gripped Oregon’s largest city for more than two months after the murder of George Floyd police in Minneapolis.
Participants have broken into the offices of a police union headquarters several times and in the past month sent clashes with federal agents to run a U.S. courthouse run by Protestants.
A Portland officer said outside the county building late Tuesday after protesters in a crowd of about 200 started firing into dumpsters, using rocks to break first-floor windows and throwing burning material inside that started the fire that alarmed and the building’s fire set sprinkler system, police said in a statement early Wednesday.
The riot statement allows officers to use crowd control methods such as tear gas or flash-bang devices. Police said in their statement that some unspecified “crowd control ammunition” was used to disperse the public, but that officers did not use tear gas.
Two protesters were arrested and one policeman suffered minor injuries in sliding doors when police broke up the demonstration, the statement said. A photo spread by police shows one window of the building spray painted with a bulging eye and the words “Aim here.”
The fire damaged the lobby where Oregon’s first gay marriage took place in 2004, Kafoury said.
She asked residents to support the community involvement bureau, adding that “there is downright injustice in our world and there is a violent and tragic history of oppression in our province. I am committed to transformation change.
“In such a difficult, uncertain time, our community needs us all to work together,” Kafoury added.
Police on Tuesday also identified a suspect accused of punching and kicking a man on the ground after he drove his pick-up truck onto a sidewalk during ongoing demonstrations.
Authorities received reports Sunday night of protesters chasing a few blocks from the federal courthouse in downtown. The driver crashed and was then attacked, authorities said.
Authorities are trying to track down the suspect, Marquise Love, 25, police said in a statement. The victim of the attack has been released from a hospital and has been recovered.
A social media account apparently linked to Love has been disabled and efforts to find him for comment were not immediately successful.
