The streets of Portland turned wild west on Sunday night when a man wearing a purple handkerchief and a brown boonie hat crouched on a trash can and opened fire on a group of protesters.
The gunman, identified by police as Dennis G. Anderson, also appeared to dodge a volley of shots during the absorption in downtown Portland. The failures followed a Proud Boys meeting in an abandoned KMart parking lot earlier in the day.
No injuries were reported during the shooting.
Anderson was arrested shortly after the shooting and charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and misuse of a weapon. It was unclear whether the suspect was part of a group of protesters.
Videos of the shooting in the center spread on social media. In the video, Anderson fires a gun and dodges the fire behind a garbage can on the corner of a street.
Left-wing activist Dustin Brandon Ferreira, 37, told the newspaper that the man used an insult against a black man in his group and then fired several rounds in his direction.
According to The Oregonian, the shooter had told one of his reporters that left-wing activists were “the real fascists” in the afternoon.
In the northeast section of the city, far-right activists moved their demonstration to the parking lot of an abandoned K-Mart, where videos appeared to show the group firing paintball guns at passing vehicles. i dump an accessible van for the disabled.
The event was held to commemorate the violent clashes that took place in the city on August 22 last year.
The groups also clashed on that side of the city, where both sides were armed with bats, chemical sprays and other weapons.
Proud Boys member Tusitala “Tiny” Toese told the Oregonian that his group had moved its event to the northeast side of the city to avoid clashes with counter-protesters.
“We moved the rally to avoid altercations and violence between us and the people on the left, but if they show up here, we will defend ourselves,” Toese said.
PPB chief Chuck Lovell said Friday that his department has dropped 145 officers from the same time last year as the firm struggles to retain and recruit new officers.
Due to the limitations, he said that his officers could not participate in planned marches that could become violent and warned that they would not do so on Sunday …
“As stated before today’s events, officers were not deployed to stand between individuals intending to confront each other,” PPB said in a press release on Sunday evening’s incidents that they did not recognize the shooting.
“But that does not mean that the crimes committed are not dealt with. Arrests do not always occur at the time. As in past events, we are conducting follow-up investigations, gathering evidence and making arrests when there is likely to be a cause that specific people have committed crimes.