Two people have been shot and killed by US federal agents in Portland. The mayor of the American city called on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to suspend operations. An ICE spokesman said the victims were alive but the extent of their injuries was unknown.
US federal agents injured two people outside a hospital in Portland, Oregon, a day after an ICE officer shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis, The Guardian writes.
Two people were taken to the hospital after a shooting involving federal agents, the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) said in a statement Thursday afternoon, adding that the victims' conditions were unknown.
Police initially responded to reports of a shooting outside the Adventist Hospital campus in east Portland, the department said, before learning that “a man who had been shot was calling for help” about 3 miles away.
“Police arrived at the scene and found a man and a woman with gunshot wounds. Police applied a tourniquet and called emergency medical services. The patients were transported to the hospital,” police said. “Police determined two people were injured in a shootout involving federal agents.”
Authorities have not confirmed the condition of the injured, but police sources said one Oregonian was shot in the leg and another in the chest.
U.S. Border Patrol agents stopped a vehicle to search for a man they suspected was an undocumented immigrant with ties to a Venezuelan gang, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Trisha McLaughlin said in a statement.
Agents said they opened fire when the driver of the car tried to drive between them, the statement said.
“Fearing for his life and safety, the agent opened fire in self-defense. The driver drove away with the passenger, fleeing the scene,” McLaughlin said.
“We know what the federal government said happened here. There was a time when we could have taken their word for it. That time is long gone,” Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said at a news conference.
Bob Day, Portland police chief, said, “This is a federal investigation. It's led by the FBI.”
Coming just a day after a federal immigration agent shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Goode in Minneapolis, the shooting drew sharp condemnation and raised fears of rising tensions in a city rocked by anti-immigration protests late last year.
Maxine Dexter, a Democratic representative for the district where the shooting occurred and a doctor, said both injured people were “alive, but we don't know the extent of their injuries.” She also called on US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to leave the city. “ICE has brought only terror, chaos and cruelty to our communities,” Dexter raged. “Trump's immigration apparatus is using violence to control our communities – straight from a dictatorial script. ICE must immediately cease all active operations in Portland.”
Dexter also asked local police to investigate. “We must let local law enforcement do their job,” she said. “There must be a full investigation without Trump's interference.”
Mayor Wilson supports Dexter's call to suspend immigration enforcement in the city. He said, “We cannot sit idly by while constitutional protections are violated and bloodshed increases. Portland is not a 'training ground' for paramilitary agents, and the 'all-out' approach the administration is threatening will have deadly consequences. As mayor, I call on ICE to cease all operations in Portland until a full investigation is complete.”
Case Jama, an Oregon state senator who lives next door to the shooting, said at an evening news conference that the “welcoming” city where he arrived as a refugee from Somalia decades ago did not need drastic action from federal immigration authorities. Addressing federal agents, he said, “This is Oregon. We don't want you, you're not welcome here and you need to get out of our community.”
Zakir Khan, a civil rights advocate in Portland, called on the hospital, part of Oregon Health & Science University, to release any surveillance footage it may have “as soon as possible.”
A man inside the medical building told The Oregonian that he saw federal marshals pull into the office building's parking lot behind a Toyota truck and try to corner it. According to him, one of the policemen knocked on the window. The driver then backed up and drove forward at least a few times, hitting the car behind him before turning around and driving away.
Last year, Portland saw months of protests centered on the downtown ice rink. In response, Donald Trump tried to send the National Guard to the city, but that decision was overturned in court. Jeff Merkley, one of Oregon's two Democratic senators, urged protesters to remain calm in the wake of the shooting. “Trump wants to incite riots,” he wrote in his post on Platform X. “Don't fall for the trap.”
Portland's police chief echoed those calls: “We understand the heightened emotions and stress many people are feeling following the shooting in Minneapolis, but I ask the community to remain calm as we work to learn more.”
A banner at the top of the Portland city government website urges residents to “React calmly and with purpose.”
Early in the evening, about a hundred protesters gathered outside City Hall in downtown Portland to chant “Abolish ICE!” Small numbers of protesters also returned to the gang complex in south Portland, many wearing animal costumes that have helped calm tensions in recent months.
On Thursday, the FBI took control of the investigation into the shooting and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCA) said access to case files, witnesses and evidence had been revoked.
Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem denied that BCA was excluded from the investigation and said it was a legal matter. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walp said in a news conference that the state “must be involved in this investigation.”
Meanwhile, the Trump administration continues to justify the deadly shooting, accusing Goode of involvement in an “act of domestic terrorism” and claiming that the ICE agent who shot her acted “in self-defense.” This story contradicts the video recording of the incident that was widely circulated online.
