Portland Man Shoots Protesters Before Being Shot Himself: Police

PORTLAND, OR — A gathering at Normandie Park against police violence turned deadly when someone who lived near the park opened fire. Officials say that the neighbor fired at least half a dozen shots, striking five people, including a woman who died at the scene.

The neighbor was then shot when someone in the-park returned fire.

An official told Patch that the incident started as a loud argument between the neighbor, who had a .45 caliber weapon, and one of the protesters who was also armed.

The investigation into the shooting is being hampered by a lack of cooperation from people who were there. While police say that they recovered several shell casings from what they believe was the neighbor's gun, they only found one rifle shell that they believe came from a protester's weapon.

Investigators believe that protesters may have removed shell casings from the scene.

Police say that "the scene was extremely chaotic and a number of witnesses were uncooperative with responding officers. Most people on scene left without talking to police."

Officials say that they have information several people recorded the incident on their phones or other recorders. Police are getting a search warrant for at least one person's video camera.

"This is a very complicated incident and investigators are trying to put this puzzle together without having all the pieces," an official said.

The protest was for Amir Locke, who was shot and killed by police in Minneapolis earlier this month and Patrick Kimmons, who died after being shot by Portland Police in 2018.

As of Friday, there had been 15 homicides in Portland. Fourteen of the victims had been shot to death.

Portland Police ask anyone has information about this case, to please contact Detective Scott Broughton at Scott.Broughton@portlandoregon.gov (503) 823-3774 or Detective Rico Beniga at Rico.Beniga@portlandoregon.gov or 503-823-0457. The case number is 22-47502.

Patch's Colin Miner contributed to the story.