One killed in Portland unrest

SAN FRANCISCO－One person was shot dead in downtown Portland, Oregon, on Saturday night after tensions between a group of supporters of US President Donald Trump and anti-racist protesters escalated, local police said.

The killing took place at 8:46 pm as police officers "heard sounds of gunfire", Portland Police Bureau said. Officers had secured a city block at the crime scene and were investigating the shooting as a homicide, it said, adding that "no suspect information is being released at this time".

"There have been some instances of violence between demonstrators and counterdemonstrators. Officers have intervened and in some cases made arrests," the bureau said.

It was unclear whether the shooting was linked to fights that broke out as a caravan of about 600 vehicles was confronted by protesters in the city center.

Portland has been the site of nightly protests for more than three months since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Many of them end in vandalism and violence, and hundreds of demonstrators have been arrested by local and federal law enforcement since late May. The caravan arrived downtown just as a protest planned for Saturday was getting underway. Police made several arrests before the shooting and advised residents to avoid the city center.

In a speech in Washington as part of the Republican National Convention on Thursday, Trump, as part of his law and order reelection campaign theme, invoked Portland as a liberal city overrun with violence,

The caravan marked another Saturday in a row that Trump supporters have rallied in the city.

Trump and other speakers at last week's convention pointed to Portland as a cautionary tale for what would be in store for US citizens if Trump is not reelected.

The pro-Trump rally's organizer, who coordinated a similar caravan in Boise, Idaho, earlier in the week, said in a video posted on Twitter on Saturday afternoon that attendees should carry only concealed weapons, and the route was being kept secret for safety reasons.

The Portland caravan had gathered earlier in the day at a suburban mall and drove as a group to the city center. As it arrived, protesters tried to stop it by standing in the street and blocking bridges.

'Survey damage'

Trump will travel to Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday and meet police there, and "survey damage from recent riots", White House spokesman Judd Deere said on Saturday.

The riots were provoked by the shooting of a black man, Jacob Blake, 29, by a policeman. Blake was shot seven times in the back in front of his small children as he tried to get into a car.

Deere did not say whether Trump would meet the family of Blake, who was left paralyzed from the waist down and is in a Milwaukee hospital.

Blake family members have been calling for an end to police violence since the shooting. They led a march and rally in Kenosha on Saturday.

"We are heartbroken and enraged, but we are steadfast in our demand for justice," said Tanya McLean, a Blake family friend who helped organize the event.

Blake's shooting is not an isolated incident, but part of a "brutal, racist system", she said.

"We're here to demand an end to police violence and systemic racism in Kenosha. No more piecemeal reforms and useless committees. No more Band-Aid solutions over the bullet wounds. The time for transformational change is now."

Ben Crump, an attorney for Blake's family, has said Blake did nothing to provoke police.

Agencies - Xinhua