How a deadly protest shooting deepened distrust of Portland police

On the evening of 19 February, a group of four women were standing in an intersection of a residential neighborhood in northeast Portland, Oregon, working as traffic safety volunteers for a demonstration in a nearby park to demand justice for Amir Locke – a 22-year-old Black man killed by Minneapolis police officers earlier in the month.

As the women stood directing traffic, a man walked out of a nearby house and angrily confronted them “about protesters in the neighborhood”. Then he opened fire, killing beloved community activist June Knightly and sending five other people to the hospital.

All four of the volunteer women were allegedly unarmed. The shooting only stopped when someone from the protest ran forward and shot the gunman in the hip. He too was wounded.