Portland woman says police slashed her car tires, broke window during protest

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    PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) — The repairs to her car have been made, but Zippy Lomax said healing from the emotional trauma after Portland Police targeted her at a protest will take some time.

“I was terrified,” Lomax said. “There’s something every day that makes me cry; it’s right there under the surface.”

Video shot by Lomax late Saturday night along Southeast 44th Avenue shows the broken glass and slashed tires following a Black Lives Matter protest that was eventually declared unlawful by police.

Lomax said she regularly attends Portland’s Black Lives Matter protests both as a supporter and as an independent journalist to document rallies and police response.

Lomax said once Saturday’s protest was declared unlawful, she got in her car to leave but then decided to follow the stream of protesters retreating from police because she wanted to make sure her friends stayed safe.

“I got my hazards on, I’m going really slow,” Lomax said. “Suddenly there were all these cops around me, banging on my car with their batons and pounding on my window.”

Lomax told FOX 12 she was ordered to stop by police, so she did, and then rolled down her window and held her hands up in the air.

“I was at a full stop and then they slashed my tires and then I felt the blow to the back of the car – I felt some of the glass hit me,” Lomax said.

“I genuinely can tell you that I do not believe in any shape or form that I deserved that,” Lomax added.

The police bureau does not deny that officers slashed tires at the protest that night. In a press release, officers said the car was a hazard and “interfering with their attempts to safely move people out of the road.”

Wednesday, FOX 12 asked police chief Chuck Lovell whether officers’ actions that night were appropriate.

“I heard about that,” Lovell said. “I didn’t see any particular video or reports on it, but I think there are instances where you might disable a vehicle that poses you some type of hazard or something of that nature, but without knowing the justification or the reasoning behind it, I think it’s hard for me to say whether it’s good, bad, acceptable, not acceptable.”

Lomax said she was never cited by police or arrested.

“The feeling that I had was that they were just angry and I was an easy target,” Lomax said.

Since then, Lomax said she’s had an outpouring of community support.

“I’m hoping that my willingness to be seen and heard will help people understand that this is really happening, this is real,” Lomax said.

Now Lomax said wants the focus to shift away from her story to the ones that matter the most.

“I want the same attention to go to Black bodies that face this kind of thing all the time,” Lomax said.

Portland Police did not address Lomax’s claims that officers smashed her rear window.

Lomax said she plans to file a complaint against officers with the city’s Independent Police Review Board. She also is considering other legal action.

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