Crime & Justice

Police Investigate After Gunfire Erupts During Heated People’s Convoy Confrontation in Portland

CHAOS

From the East Coast to the West Coast, police are continually tasked with launching investigations into the group’s activities.

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Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty

Police are investigating a shooting that took place on Friday evening as the so-called “People’s Convoy” made its way north into the Portland, Oregon, area after spending time protesting and getting eggs tossed at them in California.

The incident occurred on a highway overpass near Portland’s city limits, where counter-demonstrations to the anti-COVID-19 mandate convoy had gathered above the freeway.

“At 6:54 p.m., North Precinct and East Precinct officers responded to a report of a group throwing objects off the Northeast Glisan Street overpass over Interstate 205, and that a shot had been fired,” Portland Police said in a public statement.

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Video footage taken by the convoy shows one of their members reaching for what appears to be a firearm on his belt before gunfire rings out.

Police investigators added that they had “determined that the shot fired call was likely related” to the confrontation between the parties and did “recover evidence of one shot fired.”

“Several officers were required as a group of about 15 people were yelling at and harassing the officers as they conducted the investigation,” the statement concluded, without specifying which party was yelling at the officers. “No immediate arrests were made, but the investigation is continuing.”

Neither Portland Police nor convoy leadership returned The Daily Beast’s request for comment.

It is illegal to discharge a firearm in Portland unless the individual who fired the round was partaking in the “defense of person or property.”

This isn’t the first time The People’s Convoy, which recently parted ways with its leader, has caught the attention of law enforcement in their gas-guzzling travels.

The group left the Washington, D.C. area with two ongoing investigations into their convoy related to two separate incidents. One pertains to a convoy member allegedly striking a woman with his car and another involves claims that convoy-goers assaulted a motorbike rider.