The man who recorded a pro-Trump activist being fatally shot at a demonstration in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday night, was there to prove how peaceful the city is.
The video: Justin Dunlap, 44, a lighting technician from nearby Vancouver, Washington, was livestreaming one of his “democracy field trips” of Portland on Facebook when he captured the shooting.
As Dunlap strolls the streets — chatting with Black Lives Matter protesters and petting what he calls their “democracy dogs” — he assures viewers, “Portland’s still not burning down. Portland’s still OK.”
- About 18 minutes into the 21-minute video, Dunlap turns away from admiring some “pretty” street art and happens to record the shooting.
- Gunfire erupts, and a man collapses in the street; several people flee the scene before others gather around the man and police and medics arrive.
- The victim, identified as Aaron “Jay” Danielson of Portland, was associated with a 600-vehicle pro-Trump caravan that clashed with counterprotesters throughout the evening.
“I heard the yelling, and I turned, and the first thing I saw was the bear mace being sprayed, and then right on the heels of that were the gunshots,” Dunlap told the Washington Post.
- Dunlap said he gave a statement to homicide detectives and left Portland shortly before midnight.
- The circumstances that led to the shooting were unclear, and police have yet to release any information about a potential suspect or the victim.
What violence?: According to the Post, Dunlap was first brought to the Portland protests by his daughters in July and has regularly returned in an effort to “show people back home that Portland wasn’t actually all on fire.”
- Saturday was the 93rd consecutive night of protests and riots in the riverside city.
Conservatives have often derided liberals, including leading Democrats and journalists, for downplaying rioting, looting and violent crime amid nationwide against protests against racism and policing.
- On Aug. 23, members of militia groups clashed with protesters at a riot in Kenosha, Wisconsin, following a local police shooting of a black suspect.
- A 17-year-old, Kyle Rittenhouse, was later charged in the fatal shooting of two of the protesters.
The blame game: At a press conference on Sunday, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, a Democrat, continued to blame President Donald Trump for violence in his city.
- “It’s you who have created the hate and the division,” Wheeler said.
Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, similarly faulted the president in a statement on Sunday, saying that nearly four years into Trump’s presidency, “The temperate in the country is higher, tensions run stronger, divisions run deeper.”
Trump fired back in a barrage of tweets on Sunday and Monday, slamming Biden and local Democratic officials for allegedly enabling the rioters.
Even as Trump mocked Wheeler as “wacky” and “weak and pathetic,” he praised the Portland caravan members as “GREAT PATRIOTS” and said, “Rest In Peace Jay!”
Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, in an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, warned “all options continue to be on the table” to deploy more federal agents to Portland.
