By Dominic Taylor-
A rightwing protest in Portland on Sunday ended in a bloody gunfight, after antifascist demonstrators returned fire at a man who shot at them with a handgun in a downtown street.
The firefight took place in the heart of downtown Portland, soon after 6pm. antifascists followed a man at a distance they had been trying to eject from the area, but after he took cover behind an electrical substation box, he produced a handgun and opened fire.
On Sunday, many proud boys were open-carrying handguns, and armed with batons, bottles of chemical spray, and baseball bats, while at least one man carried a pickaxe handle emblazoned with the Proud Boys insignia.
The man being followed reportedly fired at least two shots before an antifascist returned fire with their own handgun. Portland police bureau confirmed that a man had been arrested over the shooting.
The incident came after a day of protest degenerated into unsightly clashes involving hundreds of protesters and counter protesters.
Proud Boys, known for their extreme and radical ideologies, had earlier discharged several rounds from airsoft guns, while antifascists threw firework munitions in a confrontation which began around 4pm in the carpark of an abandoned Kmart where about 200 members of far-right groups had staged a rally billed as a “Summer of Love” event was sparked after a group of around 30 antifascists – almost all clad in “black block walked past the rightwing rally at 4pm , leading to a chase by Proud Boys.
The forecourt of a neighboring gas station and a convenience store were later rumbled by explosions and gas-propelled airsoft projectiles.
After an eery pause to the violence, street medics on both sides attended to those beaten, shot, or overcome and was revived into the grounds of the high school.
When antifascists retreated from the carpark, Proud Boys began chanting “Whose streets? Our streets!”.
While those activists were watchful, but mostly peaceful in the early afternoon, at the fringes of the event, some people who fell under activists’ suspicion were confronted, with one man on a bicycle being Maced, and two street preachers from Kent, Washington, being chased from the vicinity of the park.
On Sunday, many proud boys were open-carrying handguns, and armed with batons, bottles of chemical spray, and baseball bats, while at least one man carried a pickaxe handle emblazoned with the Proud Boys insignia.