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The woman killed Saturday night in a mass shooting at a planned protest has been identified by friends and media outlets as June Knightly.
Witnesses said June Knightly was unarmed when she was shot and killed while volunteering at a protest march at Normandale Park in North Portland just before 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20.
Five others were seriously injured.
Police have released few details about the mass shooting event that took place, and had yet to identify a suspect by Monday afternoon, but said the event turned deadly after an altercation between protesters and a resident who lived nearby.
“The scene was extremely chaotic, and a number of witnesses were uncooperative with responding officers. Most people on scene left without talking to police. Detectives believe a large number of people either witnessed what happened, or recorded the incident as it unfolded. This is a very complicated incident, and investigators are trying to put this puzzle together without having all the pieces,” the bureau said.
The Portland Police Bureau was scheduled to hold a press conference on the shootings Sunday morning but apparent protesters interrupted it and the briefing was canceled.
Witnesses posted on social media accounts that shots were fired before Saturday’s march kicked off.
Friends of Knightly posted publicly that she was one of several who was helping direct traffic during the march to protest the death of Patrick Kimmons, a Black man shot and killed by Portland Police in 2018, as well as Amir Locke, a Black man shot and killed by Minneapolis police during a no-knock raid earlier this month.
Portland city leaders have reacted to Saturday’s shooting, which was one in a spate of shootings over the weekend in Portland. In another incident, police shot and killed a person during a disturbance call in Southwest Portland that same evening. The next day, a woman was shot and killed while a man and two children in the car with her were shot at and injured in Southeast Portland, according to police.
“While many of the details of last night’s shooting near Normandale Park are unclear, we do know one thing for sure: Our community is dealing with the sadness of another senseless act of gun violence. It is this collective sadness and frustration that fuels my commitment to do all that is in my power to reduce the gun violence that is traumatizing our beloved city,” Mayor Ted Wheeler said.
