‘It’s terrifying’: Neighbors react to officer-involved shooting, protest at Lents Park
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PORTLAND, Oregon (KPTV) — An officer-involved shooting left one man dead at Lents Park in Southeast Portland Friday morning.
“It’s terrifying, because it’s right across the street,” Regina Waller-Darden, a neighbor, said.
“We keep hearing about police brutality and these things keep happening. Ugh. It’s just hard to hear,” Carlos Nunez, another Lents neighbor, said.
Soon after the shooting, around 100 protesters angry about the shooting went to the park, tearing down crime scene tape while police were still investigating.
“I wish they could’ve wrapped up the investigation say hey, this happened we’re trying to get this cleared out. Make sure everyone gets the facts straight,” Nunez said. “I know we’re trying to defund them, take this away, but we’re currently working in a system where we need to better the system before we can change it.”
Protesters and police clashed at the park. Portland Police said they used pepper spray and smoke to disperse the crowd, but protesters followed behind throwing things at officers as they left the scene.
Waller-Darden said all she asks is protesters are considerate of the neighborhood they’re demonstrating in.
“We have elderly neighbors in our neighborhood. It’s scary for them to have all of that happening across the street,” she said. “We have a right to protest what we don’t like in our communities, in our cities, I think we have a right to do that. How you do it is very important.”
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