A crowd of roughly 200 people surrounded Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s home and demanded his resignation. After multiple fires were lit and nearby businesses looted for fuel, police declared a riot.
On the 96th consecutive night of protests in Portland since the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police in May, hundreds of protesters, agitators and activists gathered outside the mayor’s home in the Pearl District condominium tower demanding his resignation.
The crowd reportedly wore party hats, it was the mayor's birthday on Monday, and sang "happy tear gas to you" while they launched fireworks at the building before a bonfire fire was lit in the middle of the street.
A small fire was set in the ground floor storefront in the mayor’s apartment building, forcing a more aggressive police response.
Earlier tonight: Antifa set fires in the building where Mayor Ted Wheeler supposedly lives, prompting police to declare a riot and disburse the crowd to allow firefighters at the scene. pic.twitter.com/OfASXps04p
Police first declared an unlawful assembly and then a riot, deploying crowd control munitions and smoke grenades to move the crowd away from the area.
The incident comes just days after a man, believed to be a Trump supporter and affiliate of the Patriot Prayer conservative group, was shot dead in the city.
Police are investigating Michael Forest Reinoehl in connection with the death of Aaron “Jay” Danielson, who was shot in the chest and pronounced dead a short time later, but no arrests have yet been made.
This is not the first time protesters in the city have laid siege to the mayor’s home over perceived inaction in reforming the city's police department and his role in the police response to the ongoing protests.
In June, a short-lived ‘autonomous zone’ was established in the mayor’s neighborhood before being torn down by Portland police a short time after it was set up.
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