Portland Looters Raid Apple Store, Pioneer Place and Downtown Shops Until Wee Hours

The looters were masked, but they appeared young and predominantly white.

A man wearing a cross begs with rioters to leave the 4th Ave Smoke Shop, and bars the entrance. (Alex Wittwer)
By Aaron Mesh and Alex Wittwer

Portland rioters smashed shop windows and looted downtown stores until nearly 4 am today.

The looting followed a protest of the May 25 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. That demonstration turned destructive around 11 pm, when protesters set a fire inside the Multnomah County Justice Center.

Portland police used flash-bang grenades and tear gas to scatter the crowd. What followed for the next five hours was a wave of property destruction and looting unrivaled in Portland since 2016 protests of President Donald Trump's election.

The damage was confined to a relatively small geographic swath of the city: about 10 square blocks of downtown, between the Willamette River and Interstate 405.

But the damage was intense: Rioters smashed the windows of dozens of stores. They raided the shelves of a CVS Pharmacy and a locally owned cigarette shop. They snatched products from the Apple Store and sprinted up the escalators at the City Target. Some people set bonfires—including outside a pharmacy.

The looters were masked, but they appeared young and predominantly white. That was a contrast to a peaceful vigil Friday night in North Portland, where many of the protesters were black.

Yet reports on the ground noted that iconic local businesses like Powell's City of Books were left untouched.

Mayor Ted Wheeler has set a citywide curfew for 8 pm tonight. Here are photos of the looting and damage.

A looter enters the Pioneer Place mall. (Alex Wittwer)
Firefighters respond to a blaze on Washington Street. (Alex Wittwer)
Looters leave CVS Pharmacy with bottled water. (Alex Wittwer)
A police officer outside CVS Pharmacy. (Alex Wittwer)
A police officer examines the damage to a jewelry store in the Dekum Building on 3rd Avenue. (Alex Wittwer)
A man injured by shrapnel from a police flash-bang reaches out for help. Out of frame, a nurse applies gauze and bandaging to a serious wound that required hospitalization. (Alex Wittwer)
A man pleas with the rioters to go home and “do the right thing.” (Alex Wittwer)
Ray Ameripor, owner of the hat store on 3rd Avenue that had its windows destroyed in the riot. (Alex Wittwer)

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