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Police shot a man on Thursday night outside a Motel 6 in the Lloyd District. The man died at a nearby hospital early Friday morning, according to a press release from the Portland Police Bureau.
Officers were deployed to the Motel 6, near where Northeast Grand Avenue crosses Holladay Street, at 7:06 pm in response to a call for a “welfare check”, according to the bureau.
A witness who claims to have seen the entire incident unfold from an apartment window across the street north of the Motel 6 told WW that at 7:25 pm, one officer shot a white man who had a knife twice in the back as he attempted to flee after officers tried to disarm him.
“A bunch of people were making a loud noise, and I went to the window,” said Kalli, who did not want to disclose her full name for privacy reasons. “EMS was taking a stabbed man away. He was stabbed really bad.”
Kalli said officers tried to disarm the subject, who appeared to be going through a mental health crisis, but were unsuccessful.
“He got away from the police and started to run,” Kalli continued. “So they shot him. Twice in the back.” (Her account was later contradicted by security video, which showed the subject advancing toward police with a sharp object.)
At 9:30 pm, the Portland Police Bureau announced the subject was an adult white male and that no one else was injured during the incident. Accounts of eyewitnesses varied as to whether the man who was shot was holding a knife or a screwdriver, whether he had stabbed another person, and his race.
An update by the Police Bureau early Friday morning described the incident in sparse detail. It reported that officers were dispatched to the motel at 7:06 pm “to a report of a welfare check on a white adult male dressed in all black at [the motel]. After officers arrived with paramedics, they encountered a man matching that description and an officer-involved shooting took place.”
The conflicting accounts added to a combustive situation outside the Motel 6, as a few dozen police abolitionist activists arrived at the scene of the shooting to confront police. Many protesters appeared to have seen social media reports—denied by official accounts—that police had shot and killed a Black man.
Officers cordoned off the scene with a one-block buffer in every direction from the Motel 6 parking lot where the shooting occurred. The number of protesters continued to grow as the night wore on.
By 10 pm, about 60 protesters had gathered, slowly encroaching on the police cordon from the south. Members of the crowd disparaged police officers holding the perimeter.
“Why are you here tonight?” one yelled. “You’re not here protecting the streets from antifa! You’re here because one of you murdered a man!”
Shortly after 10:30 pm, police pushed protesters half a block south with a volley of mace and impact munitions, expanding their perimeter in response to claims that officers had been attacked with water bottles and chemical sprays.
In their early morning account of the situation, police gave this explanation of why they needed to deploy force on the crowd: “During the investigation, a group gathered at the crime scene and began yelling, throwing items at officers, and attempting to interfere with the investigation. One officer’s baton was grabbed and she was being pulled toward the crowd. Other officers quickly intervened. Someone from the crowd pepper sprayed an officer. At least one police vehicle’s tires were punctured and a window broken. Police officers citywide were called to assist with scene security.”
Police Chief Chuck Lovell posted a video on Twitter just before 10:30 pm on Thursday calling the incident a “very difficult and dynamic situation that no officer wants to face” but divulged few details.