Wednesday, November 11, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
21
Unrest erupts over police killing of Black man near Portland
By Gillian Flaccus
Associated Press
VA N C O U V E R ,
Wa s h i n g t o n ( A P ) 4
Tensions boiled over into
unrest late Friday, October
30, following a vigil for a
Black man shot and killed
by law enforcement in a city
near Portland, Oregon, in
southwestern Washington
state.
Mourners gathered in
Hazel Dell, an unincorpo-
rated area of Vancouver,
Washington, where family
and friends say Kevin E.
Peterson Jr., 21, was shot
Thursday night. The city is
about 12 miles (19 kilome-
ters) north of Portland.
Hundreds of people gath-
ered for the vigil Friday
evening, with some holding
signs reading, <Honk for
Black lives. White silence is
violence= and <Scream his
name.=
Nearby, tensions flared
between left- and right-wing
protesters. Video recorded
by journalists in a parking lot
showed two groups of people
shouting at each other. Also,
some armed demonstrators
gathered near a building
they told reporters they were
protecting.
The crowds ultimately
fizzled out near the vigil but
a group of hundreds of pro-
testers later marched through
d o w n t o w n Va n c o u v e r.
Windows were shattered,
flags were burned and fed-
eral agents clothed in riot
gear surrounded a building
4 warning people that tres-
passing on federal property
would be subject to arrest.
Multiple videos showed
two vehicles facing each
other just after midnight
on a downtown street. Two
shots were heard but report-
ers at the scene said it didn9t
appear anyone was hit.
Authorities declared
an unlawful assembly and
ordered protesters to dis-
perse. At least one per-
son appeared to have been
detained, according to video
posted online by a journalist.
Family and friends had
described Peterson as a for-
mer high school football
player and the proud father
of an infant daughter.
In a statement, Clark
County Sheriff Chuck Atkins
said a joint city-county nar-
cotics task force was con-
ducting an investigation just
before 6 p.m. Thursday and
chased a man into the park-
ing lot of a bank, where he
fired a gun at them. A fire-
arm was recovered at the
scene, Atkins said.
Authorities have not
named the person who was
shot, but Kevin E. Peterson
Sr. told The Oregonian/
OregonLive the person was
his son, Kevin E. Peterson
Jr. Atkins referenced the
Peterson family in his
remarks but did not confirm
Peterson was the person who
was killed.
<I can say that our agency
is grieving as is the Peterson
family and the community,=
Atkins said. <As the commu-
nity grieves, I call for there
to be a respectful and digni-
fied observance of the loss
of life in this matter. There is
always the potential for mis-
information, doubt and con-
fusion 4 and there may be
those who wish to sow seeds
of doubt.=
The investigation
has been referred to the
S o u t h w e s t Wa s h i n g t o n
Independent Investigation
Team, and the Camas Police
Department is taking the
lead, Atkins said.
Investigators said Friday
evening that the narcotics
task force had contacted a
man suspected of selling ille-
gal drugs in a motel parking
lot and that he fled on foot
with officers following. The
man produced a handgun
and the officers backed off,
investigators said. A short
time later, the man encoun-
tered three Clark County
deputies, all of whom fired
their pistols at the man, they
added. They did not say the
man fired a handgun found at
They’re not sure
what happened, why
the encounter took place.
— Mac Smiff
the scene, making it unclear
what happened just before
the shooting.
The community is a
short drive north across
the Columbia River from
Portland, where racial jus-
tice protests have played
out nearly every night since
George Floyd9s killing by
police in May. Southwest
Washington is also home to
the right-wing group Patriot
Prayer, which has held rallies
for President Donald Trump
in Portland in recent months
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that ended in violence.
Earlier Friday, several
people paid their respects
to Peterson at the site of the
shooting.
Mac Smiff, an organizer
of Black Lives Matter pro-
tests in Portland, said he
knows Peterson9s sister and
spent more than five hours at
the scene.
<There was a ton of grief,
a ton of grief. He9s 21 and
has a baby, an infant,= Smiff
said. <They9re not sure what
happened, why the encoun-
ter took place. Everyone was
extremely disheveled and
confused.=
Jake Thompson, a high
school acquaintance of
Peterson, said he took photos
at the wedding of Peterson9s
parents in Portland in 2018.
On Friday, he posted a black-
and-white photo of Peterson
in a suit and bow tie as he
flashed a big grin.
<I didn9t sleep much last
night,= he said Friday.
Peterson played foot-
ball at Union High School
in Vancouver, Washington,
loved sports of any kind
and was a big personal-
ity who was known and
liked by everyone at school,
Thompson said.
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