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By Kanishka Singh
(Reuters) – One person was shot and killed in Portland late on Saturday when protesters from rival groups clashed in the northwestern US city, which has seen frequent demonstrations for months that have turned violent at times.
Police said in statements that both the death and protest violence occurred in downtown Portland. However, they did not immediately link the shooting death to the protests.
“(Police) responded and located a victim with a gunshot wound to the chest. Medics responded and determined that the victim was deceased,” a Portland police spokesman said in an emailed statement.
“A homicide investigation is underway.”
Gunfire sounds were heard in the area of Southeast 3rd Avenue and Southwest Alder Street, according to the spokesman’s statement.
Police said they were not currently releasing information about the suspect.
When asked by Reuters whether the shooting was related to clashes between rival protesters in the same area, the spokesman said “it is too early in the investigation to draw such conclusions.”
The New York Times and Oregon newspapers reported that a large group of President Donald Trump supporters had traveled in a motorcade through downtown Portland, with a pro-Trump rally that drew hundreds of truckloads of supporters to the city.
The Times cited two unidentified witnesses as saying that a small group of people argued with other people in a vehicle and someone opened fire.
The man who was shot and killed wore a hat with the insignia of Patriot Prayer, a Portland-based far-right group that has clashed with protesters in the past, according to the New York Times. Reuters could not independently verify this.
Portland police earlier said in a tweet that “a political demonstration is going through downtown Portland” and that there have been “some instances of violence between protesters and counter-protesters.”
Police had intervened and made some arrests, they said in the tweet.
The New York Times reported that Trump supporters and counter-protesters clashed in the streets, with people firing paintball guns from truck beds and protesters throwing objects at them.
The pro-Trump vehicle rally began near downtown Clackamas before arriving in Portland on Saturday night, and thereafter clashes broke out between Trump supporters and counter-protesters, the Oregonian reported.
He added that the shooting took place after most of the caravan left the center.
Demonstrations against racism and police brutality have swept the United States since the death in May of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. .
Tensions between rival protest groups have rocked downtown Portland every night for nearly three months after Floyd’s death.
In July, the Trump administration deployed federal forces in Portland to suppress the protests.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Sam Holmes and Hugh Lawson)
