Gaylene Lupo
US Customs and Border Protection agents have shot two people in Portland, Oregon just one day after an ICE officer shot and killed a mother-of-three in Minneapolis.
Department of Homeland Security officials said Border Patrol agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop at 2.19pm outside Adventist Health Portland on Southeast Main Street.
The passenger was a Venezuelan national who was a member of the notorious Tren de Aragua prostitution ring who was’ involved in a recent shooting in Portland’ and the driver is believed to be a member of the gang as well.
‘When agents identified themselves to the vehicle occupants, the driver weaponized his vehicle and attempted to run over the law enforcement agents,’ the DHS statement says.
‘Fearing for his life and safety, an agent fired a defensive shot. The driver drove off with the passenger, fleeing the scene.’
Law enforcement sources told KGW the stop was part of a special operation detachment as part of Border Patrol’s ‘Operation Oregon.’
The sources described how agents stopped a red Toyota, prompting the driver attempted to flee, and hitting an unidentified agent’s vehicle in the process.
The agent then fired at the Toyota, hitting a 33-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman.
By 2.24pm, police learned that a man who had been shot was calling to request help at an apartment near Northeast 146th Avenue and East Burnside, where law enforcement was seen speaking to people on the scene.
Officers then responded to the scene, and found a man and a woman with apparent gunshot wounds. At that point, officers said they applied a tourniquet and called for emergency medical help.
In a dispatch recording shared online, an operator could be heard saying a man was shot twice in the arm and his wife was shot once in the chest.
No agents were injured in the shooting, a federal law enforcement source told CNN.
The condition of those who were shot on Thursday was not immediately clear, but Portland City Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney told KATU as far as she knew they were still alive.
The FBI, meanwhile, confirmed that two people were injured in the city.
‘This remains [an] active and ongoing investigation led by the FBI,’ the agency wrote in a since-deleted post.
Portland Police Chief Bob Day echoed those remarks, saying: ‘We are still in the early stages of this incident.’
‘We understand the heightened emotion and tension many are feeling in the wake of the shooting in Minneapolis, but I am asking the community to remain calm as we work to learn more.’
The shooting came as the Portland city council was in the middle of its proceedings, which abruptly came to an end as councilors learned about what happened.
Mayor Keith Wilson has since issued a statement calling the shooting a ‘deeply troubling incident.’
‘We cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts,’ he declared. ‘Portland is not a “training ground” for militarized agents and the “full force” threatened by the administration has deadly consequences.’
Wilson then said he is calling on ICE to ‘end all operations in Portland until a full investigation can be completed.’
Yet the mayor urged Portland residents to respond with ‘calm and purpose,’ warning ‘Portland does not respond to violence with violence.’
At a news conference Thursday night, Wilson also called for the federal officials leading ICE and Border Patrol to ‘be fully investigated.’
‘We know what the federal government says happened here,’ he said. ‘There was a time when we could take them at their word. That time is long past.’
Three city councilors who represent the region also said they are awaiting more information but the incident ‘is part of a pattern or violence that we have seen too many times across our country.’
‘As your East Portland councilors, we have stood united to protect Portlanders from aggressive immigration enforcement and federal overreach and we will continue to do everything in our power to keep our communities safe,’ they said, according to OBP.
‘We are asking our counterparts at every level of government to do the same.’
Meanwhile, Congresswoman Maxine Dexter called on ICE to end its operations in Portland.
‘ICE has done nothing but inject terror, chaos and cruelty into our communities,’ she said in a statement.
‘Trump’s immigration machine is using violence to control our communities – straight out of the authoritarian playbook.’
Congresswoman Janelle Bynum agreed.
‘This isn’t law enforcement, it’s state-sponsored terrorism,’ she said in her own statement. ‘Stop f***ing with us.
‘This is the second shooting this week by agents following the orders of a wannabe dictator who is trying to take over cities and rule by instilling terror in the hears of American people,’ Bynum said.
‘When the president deployed his guardsmen to our city earlier this year, we told him their presence was unwelcome and unhelpful. Today, we saw just how dangerous this is – we need these goons gone.’
The shooting comes amid heightened tensions nationwide following the ICE-related shooting death of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good.
The agent responsible, identified as Jonathan ‘Jon’ Ross, has been branded a ‘murderer’ by furious Democrats but has enjoyed the full support of the Trump administration, who argue he acted in self defense when it appeared Good intended to run him down with her car.
Now, Good’s friends have revealed she was part of a network of activists coordinated through her six-year-old son’s charter school who were actively resisting ICE.
‘She was a warrior. She died doing what was right,’ a mother named Leesa who has a child at the same school as Good’s son told The New York Post.
‘[Renee Good] was trained against these ICE agents — what to do, what not to do, it’s a very thorough training.’
As part of this training, Good allegedly learned to listen to commands and to understand her rights.
‘I know she was doing the right thing. I watched the video plenty of times but I also know in my heart the woman she was, she was doing everything right,’ Leesa said.
In the video, agents could be seen approaching Good’s stationary vehicle, asking her to exit, and one tugs at the door handle as she starts to reverse.
Ross stands in front of the car and draws his weapon, pointing it at Good as she starts moving forward. She strikes him with the car as he opens fire. Good’s Honda Pilot crashed nearby and she was declared dead at the scene.
Ross is an ‘experienced’ officer who last year suffered gruesome injuries as he tried to arrest an illegal immigrant sex offender.
‘He’s the same ICE agent who got dragged by car 50 feet back in June, so he has a history,’ an FBI agent who spoke to the Daily Mail on condition of anonymity confirmed.
The FBI agent noted that he does not believe Ross was justified in his shooting of Good.
‘Shot one, sort of can be argued, but shots two and three – they cannot be argued.’
Source: Dailymail.co.uk | Read the Full Story…
