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Portland Officials Hold Press Conference After One Person Was Shot And Killed During Protests; Trump Live Tweets About Wheeler Press Conference; Portland Police Resources Strapped. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired August 30, 2020 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. Thanks for being with me. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.

Bring in the National Guard. That is the president's response after one person was shot and killed in downtown Portland during protests last night. And we have new disturbing video you will see it freeze at the moment he was killed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, go, go. (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got mace in my eyes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: This shooting happened on a night that included violent clashes between racial justice activists and a group of Trump supporters who rolled into town for their own demonstration.

For more than 90 conservative nights now protesters in Portland have taken to the streets calling for an end to police brutality after the killing of George Floyd. And during that time, the president has sought to downplay the racial reckoning, portraying himself as the only thing standing between order and chaos, while casting Portland's mayor as a fool.

In just the last few minutes Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden unequivocally condemning the violence, saying in a statement, quote, "The deadly violence we saw overnight in Portland is unacceptable. Shooting in the streets of a great American city is unacceptable. I condemn this violence unequivocally. I condemn violence of every kind by anyone, whether on the left or the right.

"And I challenge Donald Trump to do the same. It does not matter if you find the political views of your opponent abhorrent. Any loss of life is a tragedy. Today there is another family grieving in America and Jill and I offer our deepest condolences. We must not become a country at war with ourselves, a country that accepts the killing of fellow Americans who do not agree with you, a country that vows vengeance toward one another."

We are now just 65 days away from an election in this, a pandemic, and this racial reckoning. And in this tinderbox moment, the president plans to visit Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday where protests are ramping up after Jacob Blake was shot by police one week ago.

Let's begin in Portland, Oregon, with CNN's Josh Campbell, who is following developments from this protest.

Josh, we're standing by for a press conference with the mayor of Portland any moment now. Give us the latest.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Yes, Ana, we expect to see the mayor here very, very shortly. We're told within just a matter of minutes. And we expect him to respond to a few things, first of which a night of violence here in the city of Portland. And as we've been reporting, this is a city that has seen violence for weeks now, during the daytime mostly peaceful protests calling for racial justice, calling for the end to police brutality, but at night there has been violence and rioting at downtown federal building, and obviously the focus of national and international attention.

However, last night there was an added layer into this already chaotic situation when hundreds of supporters of President Trump had amassed in a nearby suburb and caravanned into downtown. That leading led to violence between protesters and some of the counter protesters. Police telling us that they made a number of arrests.

Now we're also told that one person was shot and killed during an encounter. The details of that shooting are still sketchy at this point. Police continue to investigate. However, our colleagues at the "New York Times" reporting that the deceased victim had a hat, he was wearing a hat that had the insignia of a far-right group. But again police saying they continue to investigate that.

We've been talking to law enforcement sources who tell us that they are preparing for possible more violence tonight. They're very concerned especially if it turns out that this person was a -- one of the pro-Trump supporters and was killed. But law enforcement is concerned that that would lead to then perhaps retribution, and so we're going to hear from city officials addressing that.

We also know that overnight President Trump slammed the city's mayor here, who he's been ridiculing for quite some time. However, rather than condemning the violence, the president was saying that the violence has been -- that we saw overnight was not unexpected. So we expect to hear the mayor here in a second. I'll let you interrupt me whenever he takes the microphone, but a lot of to address here.

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Again a powder keg of a city right now that continues to face protests and now again this added layer of counter protesters that led to a night of violence here in the city.

CABRERA: OK. Josh Campbell, please stand by, and again we are looking at where we expect the mayor as well as top police officials there in Portland, Oregon, to take the podium here any moment. It looks like they're gearing up to address the media right now. Let's pause and listen in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, everybody, for your patience, your incredible patience. We totally appreciate it as we work to ensure that we have an ASL interpreter here alongside of us. And I know it's been a little bit overdue, but today we're going to be hearing from Mayor Ted Wheeler and then Portland Police Bureau Chief Chuck Lovell, and he will be followed by Multnomah County district attorney Mike Schmidt.

So let's get right to it. I'll hand the microphone over to Mayor Ted Wheeler.

MAYOR TED WHEELER (D), PORTLAND, OREGON: Thank you, Tim.

This afternoon my heart is heavy. My heart goes out to the family and the friends of the man who was killed last night on the streets of our city. I mourn with you. I'm going to support the police chief and the district attorney in apprehending and holding accountable those who are responsible for the homicide last night. I stand here with the police chief and the district attorney to, again, denounce the violence. The tragedy of last night cannot be repeated.

All of us must take a stance against violence. And it doesn't matter who you are or what your politics are, we have to all stop the violence. For those of you saying on Twitter this morning that you plan to come to Portland to seek retribution, I'm calling on you to stay away. You of course have a constitutional right to be here, but we're asking you to stay away and work with us to help us de-escalate this situation.

And Portlanders, I'm asking all of us to do our part, too. One death is one death too many. Join me in denouncing all violence. Let's pull together in the name of peace and humanity. We don't always have to agree, but we've long done so without violence. That's part of what makes this nation strong. Let's end this long, hard summer, and come together and work to support and lift each other, not tear each other apart.

I'm going to continue to work with the community on the historic changes that we have already made and have committed to making as we reimagine what public safety and racial justice can look like in our community. And we'll continue to do that work in the weeks and the months ahead. There's so much work to do. And I'll be intentionally engaging the public as we proceed along these -- proceed to engage in that hard work together.

Yesterday's events began with hundreds of cars filled with supporters of the president rallying in Clackamas County and then driving through downtown Portland. They were supported and energized by the president himself. President Trump, for four years, we've had to live with you and your

racist attacks on black people. We learned early about your sexist attitudes towards women. We've had to endure clips of you mocking a disabled man. We've had to listen to your anti-democratic attacks on journalists. We've read your tweets slamming private citizens to the point of receiving death threats. And we've listened to your attacks on immigrants.

We've listened to you label Mexicans rapists. We've heard you say that John McCain wasn't a hero because he was a prisoner of war. And now you're attacking Democratic mayors in the very institutions of democracy that have served this nation well since its founding.

Do you seriously wonder, Mr. President, why this is the first time in decades that America has seen this level of violence? It's you who have created the hate and the division. It's you who have not found a way to say the names of black people killed by police officers, even as people in law enforcement have, and it's you who claimed that white supremacists are good people. Your campaign of fear is as anti- democratic as anything you have done to create hate and vitriol in our beautiful country.

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You've tried to divide us more than any other figure in modern history, and now you want me to stop the violence that you helped create. What America needs is for you to be stopped, so that we can come back together as one America while recognizing that we must demand that all people, black, brown, white, every color from every political persuasion, pull together and hold all people accountable in stopping racism and violence. And we together are peaceful again under new leadership that reflects who we really are. We the people of this great nation.

President Trump, you bring no peace. You bring no respect to our democracy. You, Mr. President, need to do your job as the leader of this nation, and I, Mr. President, will do my job as the mayor of this city. And we will both be held accountable, as we should.

I'm also calling out every other elected official in Oregon to join me, not only in defeating racism, but also in helping me to stop the violence, as we are and will continue to be held accountable by all of our residents.

Today we need to decide who we are and where we want to go from here. Don't let this be the spark that sets off an acceleration of hostilities in our beautiful city. Those are not our values. What happened last night does not move us forward. It sets us back. I know the values of this community. I was born and raised here. I found my living here. I raised my family here. This is where I want to be. And I know the values of this community.

We want to protest powerfully and peacefully. We believe that black lives matter, and we believe that it's the responsibility of our leaders to ensure that the systems that we have in place to protect and serve do so equitably. Let's engage with each overt in thoughtful dialogue about reform and use the power of our shared values to move forward together. We must recommit our energy and our resources to advancing the work of reform, and the transformation of our systems.

We've seen the positive power of collective and focused and nonviolent action. We've seen the change. Our responsibility to each other is to keep moving forward. Portland is counting on its lead leaders, the city, the county, the state, our federal partners, to partner and use the collective power of our offices to create a better future for all of us. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Next we will have Portland Police bureau chief Chuck Lovell.

CHIEF CHUCK LOVELL, PORTLAND POLICE: Thank you, Tim.

Last night Portland witnessed another homicide, this time in downtown. There are many who are sharing information on social media or jumping to conclusions that are not based in fact. A human being lost their life last night. And it's critical that everyone refrain from conjecture and allow us to gather the evidence and statements needed to hold the person who did this responsible for this heinous act.

We ask that anyone with information or video or eyewitness accounts, please come forward and share that information with our investigators so we can quickly resolve this case. Prior to the shooting, there was a political rally involving a vehicle caravan that traveled through Portland for several hours. There were some skirmishes between rally- goers and counter-demonstrators, and police made several arrests.

The caravan covered miles of area and officers responded to different locations as identified problems arose, and provided a presence and even made arrests when warranted. The vehicle caravan had already cleared the area when the shooting occurred near Southwest 3rd and Alder. This is an active investigation and our detectives are gathering information to determine what happened and what led up to this death. In order to protect the integrity of this case we cannot release any specific details at this time.

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Our Constitution permits freedom of speech and assembly, and individuals are free to disagree, but criminal activity, especially violence, is out of bounds. This event is already gaining extreme media attention. And I will once again point out this is not the only life lost to gun violence in Portland. On Thursday a 16-year-old African-American teenager was gunned down in the city park. Three others were injured.

Our investigators are still seeking information in that case as well. Some may not even be aware it happened as it hardly generated any headlines. We've witnessed an increase in more and more uncivilized activity in our city and in our nation. It's incumbent on all of us to do better, so no more lives are lost. Portland desperately needs calm. We're living in an extremely divided era. And it's time for us to start focusing on what we have in common and not what divides us. Lives are at stake. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And last, we will bring up Multnomah County

district attorney Mike Schmidt. And we ask that you hold the questions until after, and then when you do ask your question, let us know who you would like to question to be directed to and they will step to the microphone as necessary.

MIKE SCHMIDT, MULTNOMAH COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Thank you, Mayor Wheeler and Chief Lovell. As the mayor said, my heart is also heavy today. Anytime a human being loses their life, it's a huge tragedy, and my condolences go out to the family.

Martin Luther King said we must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. Those words are as true today as they were when Dr. King spoke them 56 years ago in St. Louis. I know today a lot of my neighbors in Multnomah County are fearful and they're hurting. And I understand that. We are stunned and saddened, angry and frustrated, that this happened in our community.

That the right or the duty to peacefully protest and speak out for an end to systemic racism that has plagued our country for generation could be undermined by this terrible act of violence, but my message today to my neighbors is, we can never allow hatred or racism or division and violence to win. When we allow that, democracy loses. When we allow violence and division to triumph, hope dies.

The violence that is occurring in our city needs to stop. Far too many people have been injured, and now somebody has died. Our community is being terrorized by people coming into Portland for the explicit purpose of committing violence. And that is not acceptable. We're seeing too much tragedy across our city. As Chief Lovell said, on Thursday a teenager died in a shooting in northeast Portland. And a neighbor did what neighbors do. She had tried to apply a tourniquet, but was unsuccessful.

We have too much violence going on in our community. Hate, division, hopelessness, too many guns in the wrong hands, is fueling this ruined of violence, and will take all of us together to stop the bleeding in our community and in our country. My office is working closely with the police bureau and the mayor to investigate last night's shooting. As you have heard mentioned earlier in this press conference, we need cooperation of the public.

It is vital that we find answers. I'm thankful for the officers and the detectives working with Chief Lovell to investigate these crimes, the attorneys from my office that were out all night working with them to help us find answers and do and put together a proper investigation. I know and expect that the cases of violent acts will be investigated and then submitted to my office for review.

We do not prosecute individuals based on ideologies or affiliations with political and non-political organizations. We will initiate a criminal case following a review of all of the evidence and whenever legally and ethically appropriate pursuant to state and constitutional law. We support freedom of speech. We support nonviolent protests. We support speaking out to improve our communities. We support standing up for each other. What we do not support violence. We're in a pivotal time right now. We cannot afford to allow the calls

for social justice to end to systemic racism to be overshadowed by the continued violence. We cannot allow this critical moment in our history to be hijacked.

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This is our community. We're strong. We reject violence when it occurs. My office is ready to hold offenders accountable. And together, in Dr. King's words, let's choose to live together as brothers and sisters, and not perish together as fools. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mike. OK. We're going to now open up the floor for questions. And again, identify which outlet you are with, your name and then your question and who it's directed at, or maybe in the order of who's it directed at and then your question. And let's begin. Who's got a question? OK?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Chief?

LOVELL: So last night we had information that a vehicle caravan was going to come up to Portland from Clackamas County. Early on we didn't have a good idea of the number. And then once the caravan started we had a sense of how many were in that caravan. We tried to take precautionary measures during the route to keep them out of the downtown area. The goal was to keep them on I-5, but later a group of those vehicles were able to come into the downtown core.

We didn't have any specific information of a gathering where folks would be outside of vehicles. So most of our information previously surrounded the vehicle caravan that would be coming up from (INAUDIBLE).

WHEELER: I don't have much to say beyond that, except that of course we were monitoring the situation on social media. And we chose not to publicize it. We didn't think that would help de-escalate the situation or any potential flash points.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE). Mayor, what are you going to do -- I mean, this has been building for a long time? (INAUDIBLE). What are you going to do to keep the same thing that happened last night to not escalate any further?

WHEELER: Thank you for the question. Yes. So obviously I've stood at this podium on a number of occasions and I have expressed what my greatest fear would be. And I've said my greatest fear is somebody will die. And now somebody has. And we as a community are mourning, and I, as the mayor, am accountable to the public, and will continue to be accountable.

So here's the specific steps that we're taking. Number one, I, along with my colleagues on the city council, committed to a number of fundamental reforms, having listened to and understood what nonviolent demonstrators were asking for in the city of Portland. I put forward a 19-point plan that was very specific in terms of actions that we could take, including reducing certain programs within the police bureau that were seen as biased by many people in the black community in particular.

We made commitments to reinvest in the community to a significant degree. We made decisions to engage the public more directly around oversight and accountability. And my colleagues and I referred a significant charter reform to the ballot, which will be on the November ballot, and people will have an opportunity to cast a vote. I encourage people to vote for that.

We committed to working alongside our colleagues, like Lou Frederick, Senator Frederick, and State Representative Janell Bynum, on fundamental reforms to criminal justice, and many of those reforming have now been passed in the legislative session. We have agreed to continue to work with others in the community, the community level to listen, to hear, to understand, and pass fundamental reforms.

I'm now engaging with our Citizen Review Commission, as well as the Portland Committee on Community Engaged Policing, around reimagining what local policing can look like, what precinct policing can look like, and there are many other opportunities for us to work with the community directly. And as we proceed with this, I'm going to continue to ask the community to work with me. I'm going to continue to ask our colleagues in Multnomah County to work with me.

I'm going to continue to ask the governor and our state legislature to work with me. And so this is a long road ahead of us, but we know that the dead-end is violence. That is a dead-end street. We don't want to be in that cul-de-sac. We need to focus our energy, focus our passion, focus our attention on the hard work of fundamental reform.

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And it starts with policing and criminal justice, but then we have a lot of work to do around education, around housing access, around health access, around shared economic prosperity opportunities. We have so much work yet to do. And I don't want the public to be sidetracked by engaging in violence. That's never the right answer. So I'm asking the public to work with us, to continue to do the work we have already engaged in around historic reforms, and let's work together moving forward. Yes, sir?

CAMPBELL: Mr. Mayor, Josh Campbell, CNN.

WHEELER: Hey, Josh.

CAMPBELL: This morning the president had some very harsh words for you obviously. He didn't condemn the violence, but he said that, in his words, it was kind of expected because of the weeks of some violence that we've in the city. What's your response to that?

CAMPBELL: My response is as the president of the United States and somebody who has been perpetrating divisive and hateful language for four years, for him to now stand here and say that it's unexpected and act as though he's shocked is appalling to me. We all saw this coming. And as I've said, I've stood at this podium I don't know how many times and have said that we must denounce the violence, that we must work together, that we must accurately address what's going on around systematic injustices in our community here in Portland and hold ourselves accountable for what's happening here in Portland.

But the president has a role to play in this as well in acknowledging and understanding those systematic injustices nationally. And the tweets that he has been putting out in the last 48 hours attacking Democratic mayors, attacking those who are trying to bring resolution to the violence in their local communities. He has an opportunity to uplift us and bring us together and help us move through this difficult situation in our nation's history. And instead, he chooses to play petty politics and divide us.

That's my reaction. So I'm going to do the work that I need to do here in my local community with my local officials to take accountability for what's happening on our streets, and I'd appreciate that either the president supports us or he stay the hell out of the way.

CAMPBELL: (INAUDIBLE) what I hear you're saying is that because of the violence he's not surprised that there would be this other group coming in. What's your response to that?

WHEELER: Of course he's not surprised. He encouraged them to come into our community. And previously he's actually encouraged or at least tacitly approved of violence. And so I'm not surprised in the slightest. I'm surprised if he would be surprised by this. So there's an olive branch opportunity here for all of us. We need to reset. The president needs to reset. I need to reset. This community needs to reset. And America needs to reset.

And it's going to take his leadership in the White House, and it's going to take my leadership here in city hall to get it done. And so I'm saying let's end this summer, let's end the violence. Let's commit to that. Is that something we can all agree on, that we are done with the violence? And now let's do the hard work of acknowledging, of hearing and understanding the pain and the suffering and the fear and the anxiety that exists in this nation around the COVID crisis, which the president initially seemed to be ignoring or pooh-poohing, and the economic crisis which is now resulting causing so many Americans economic stress and strain.

And now the work that we have to do in our communities across the nation in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. I'm up to that challenge. And I hope the president is, too. And I'm ready to ready to reach across any aisles I need to reach across, any political divides that I need to cross in order to bring us back together. Somebody's got to do it. I'm committed to it. I know my colleagues on the Portland City committed to it. I'd like to hear the president of the United States say he's all in. Let's bring this great nation back together.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) a number of civil rights groups, (INAUDIBLE) groups, called (INAUDIBLE) this morning. What is your response to that?

WHEELER: No. Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sir, you talked about accountability, police reform, do you have a plan, though, for keeping groups apart? You didn't see much of it yesterday in terms of keeping (INAUDIBLE), you certainly didn't see much last week. Is there a strategy going forward as this sort of escalates that you think somehow keep groups apart, especially (INAUDIBLE) --

WHEELER: We were very successful back on August 17th, you'll recall, a year ago of keeping parties separated who had made it very clear on social media that they intended to get into it with each other.

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And what we did was we built a coalition, both of law enforcement, local, state and federal law enforcement to come together to keep the parties, those who might engage in parties, those who might engage in violence, apart.

But we also had was the community unified several days prior. We had 150 different community organizations, organizations that don't always agree on the same -- they don't all have the same politics, they don't all the same representation.

But we came together on that day and we said we, as a city, do not stand for violence. And that's the kind of coalition that we're missing right now.

We don't have elected officials on the same page denouncing violence. We don't have community organizations coming together collectively in that kind of way with that kind of single-minded determination and focus to denounce violence. And talk about the vision for the future.

But specifically, operationally, I'll defer to the chief except to say that we are in conversations with our Portland police bureau, our county sheriff's office, the governor and her team about the strategy going forward.

To do the best we can to number one, create space for people to be able to demonstrate peacefully like those outside the room right now. And on the other hand, make it crystal clear we do not tolerate violence, we do not tolerate criminal destruction and we will hold you accountable for those activities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you asked the governor for National Guard involvement (inaudible) last night?

WHEELER: As you know, on two prior occasions, I have asked the governor for the National Guard. She declined in those two circumstances but we are in communication now.

It is my belief that between PPB, the Multnomah County sheriff's office and the state police we have been successfully throughout this in terms of operations when we're combined and when we're collaborating. And I'm told by our law enforcement professionals that that is sufficient. But I'll defer to the chief. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mayor Wheeler, you mentioned that you --

WHEELER: Did you want to say something on that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. No, I --

WHEELER: OK. Sorry.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mayor, you mentioned that you feared that something like this could happen. Given that, how come the city didn't take action over the weekend to prevent something like this?

WHEELER: Well, I'm not sure how you specifically operationally can prevent this.

Keep in mind, it's no secret to anybody that I personally am not a Trump supporter but I will defend the right of a Trump supporter to stand outside my apartment and non-violently demonstrate in support of their candidate.

That's core to American democracy, is that right to demonstrate freely without the fear of retribution.

So when people say they want to come into the city in a caravan supporting their presidential candidate, we cannot tell them no. They have constitutional rights to be here. Rights which I embrace and support.

The violence, however, is the problem. And so what I'm asking people right now knowing what happened last night is if you're thinking you're going to come back into our city from somewhere else to seek retribution, I'm telling you to stay away.

Work with us, help us deescalate this situation. One death is too many, we don't want other people to die. So that's what I'm asking people from outside to do.

What I'm asking all of us as Portlanders to do is do our part too. Let's not take the bait, let's not engage. And if you see people doing things that look violent or destructive, say something. Do something. Don't just be passive.

Because ultimately, when we see examples of violence, that undermines our democracy. This democracy is dependent upon us having differences of opinion. And being able to vet differences of opinion and be able to have uncomfortable conversations without resorting to violence.

So I've asked the president to do his part, I will do my part too. We both have an important role to play. We will both be held accountable.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bridget (Inaudible).

WHEELER: Hi, Bridget.

BRIDGET (ph): Why do we not see police presence? We've seen heavy police presence at other protests when it's just activists but now why are we (inaudible) lack of support (inaudible) this weekend and last weekend?

CHIEF CHUCK LOVELL, PORTLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT: We had a strong police presence yesterday. Most of this activity was vehicle borne covering several miles on the highways.

So we did have officers in vehicles, we had our traffic division, we had folks stationed at different areas.

But it's very difficult when you have small groups of people spread throughout the city too who sometimes engage in violence acts with each other. We only have limited resources so we can't be everywhere at the same time.

The prior Saturday, we had I think about 30 officers working. So our resources were strained.

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We had an event the night before that required our crowd control resources. We had to staff for an event Saturday night, later that night, and also still answer calls for service. So we were only able to bring together that limited amount of resources for the Saturday afternoon portion.

And it's just not always operationally feasible to insert that small number of officers in between two crowds who are hostile towards one another and engage.

It's just not necessarily operationally safe all the time to get in the middle of all that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Has an arrest been made?

LOVELL: In which case?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Last night.

LOVELL: No, not at this time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you say how many officers you had on last night, 30 last weekend, (inaudible)?

LOVELL: I don't know the exact number. I'd have to go back and check but we can get that to you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chief, (inaudible) the rally yesterday, the Trump rally, said on a video that's posted on social media that he (inaudible) with law enforcement.

Did they have a permit? Did they have some kind of a permit and how closely did you work together with that group before the rally started, (inaudible) rally started?

LOVELL: Sure. To my knowledge, we had spoken to folks to try to get a sense of what the route would be and encouraged the route to be not through the downtown core. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you have a commitment that that would be the

case?

LOVELL: I don't know if we had a commitment but I know we had conversations around it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) officer (inaudible) safety. Last night (inaudible) worst videos that we've seen of vehicles running -- driving towards crowds of people. And officers were there as well. Why were those tactics not used yesterday?

LOVELL: Well, it would depend on the circumstance. I think vehicles and protesters on foot are just a bad mix in general.

And I think, given the opportunity, if we feel a vehicle poses some sort of threat to either officers or community members, disabling it by disabling the tires is an option.

That's not always feasible though depending on where officers are positioned, where the vehicle's positioned. And things of that nature.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you say --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you believe that --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chief, what is the plan for tonight? This has the potential to be very violent if there are going to be people coming to seek retribution. So walk us through what the plan is.

LOVELL: I haven't talked to my incident command folks yet. I know we're reaching out to partners to try to resource properly for tonight. And I'm not sure what we have in the way of intelligence.

But it's very possible that what happened last night could play a factor in what happens tonight. So we want to make sure we've reached to everyone we can to get the proper resources in place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Chief -- (Inaudible), the "Portland Tribune." In 2018 and '19, we had protests that were right versus left and brawls in the park. In 2020, we've had the Black Lives Matter and the systemic racism violence.

Was last night one of those and not the other or is the Venn diagram gotten such that they're blurred?

Was that a brawl in the park like we saw in 2019, was that a Black Lives Matter? Have you been able to isolate what happened last night as far as the nature of it?

LOVELL: I don't think I'd be able to classify kind of the nature of that particular interaction. To me, it could have just been a skirmish between two small groups or a problem that erupted between individuals.

So it's hard to classify it as a Black Lives Matter thing or like a kind of political ideology case. But I think as we get further into the investigation, we might learn more.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chief, some of the folks of the caravan had paintball guns, pepper spray. People (inaudible) were in the crosswalks and the cars were driving through and almost running over them.

Are you going to be seeking any (inaudible) cases against those instances, against those individuals?

LOVELL: Potentially. It would depend what information comes forward for us. We were able, I think, about 10 arrests on individual skirmishes or things that happened that we could identify and take action on.

But with a caravan that big covering that much area, we use our resources to really keep people safe. But if we do get information that leads to a prosecutable case, we'll follow up on that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chief --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You mentioned (inaudible) about misinformation. Can you give us any information on the victim much that would create some clarity here?

LOVELL: I don't have specific information on the very much that I can release at this time. But I do know -- as these kind of transpire, social media becomes very rampant with information which isn't always factual.

So I just want to make people mindful. Be careful what you believe on social media. We're investigating, we'll be releasing information at different steps of the process. And we'll keep you guys posted then.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know if the shooting was politically motivated?

LOVELL: I do not know that. No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chief, Mike from "The New York Times." You're saying -- we've seen basically here it appears gunshot was fired from both sides -- if you want to call it two sides here, in the last few weeks.

If you're saying it's operationally not feasible to keep those two sides apart, what's going to stop this from escalating to an open fire fight in the streets?

[16:40:00]

LOVELL: I hope it doesn't come to that. We have a finite resource of officers and we have these activities taking place all throughout the city.

The downtown core, our police precincts, our union offices and several random places. So we can't be everywhere at once. The issue with firearms is very troubling to us. But people do have a

constitutional right to carry firearms legally. So it's hard to prevent.

Some of the instances that take place, you're talking split second, a couple seconds. So a lot of times we're not right there to see things happen.

I think the best we can do is message to people that we want a safe city. And we ask them to not come downtown or to these other places with firearms, not engage in violent acts of crime.

And I think, where we can, we have our resources stationed and we take action when we can. We have made several hundred arrests throughout the protests.

So we have been out there 90-plus nights straight doing our best to keep the city safe and to keep these interactions from happening.

But it's hard to be -- in absolutes and say we can be here and prevent these skirmishes from happening.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you close to needing the National Guard?

LOVELL: I think we need additional resources. I think Oregon State Police have been a great partner for us, Multnomah County's been a great partner for us. As we see these things develop, it may get to that point.

But I think right now it's really kind of determining what we have available as far as resources and what we're facing as far as violent crowd activity.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So what would be the reason not to call the National Guard, what's the hesitancy there on it?

LOVELL: I don't have a hesitancy one way or the other. I think if it comes to the point where we look at our resources and we look at the problem facing us and that seems like the best option to assist then that's what will need to happen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) are you considering a curfew (inaudible)?

LOVELL: I'm not sure, honestly. I probably will know more after I talk to my incident management team folks. But we had a curfew early on and it wasn't very successful. We saw very large crowds at that time.

But I would say it's not something that's totally off the table, but it's not something -- I don't think we're looking at this moment.

All right. I'm sorry, you --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Talking about resources. Last night there was lots of pockets of violence. Some of those (inaudible), paintballs, Mace, fist fights. We didn't see any police officers in most of these. And so I'm asking were you trying to insert yourself in some of these groups? Or were you saying because you don't have enough officers you're going to stay away and just let this play out?

LOVELL: No. We had our resources focused on the vehicular part of the event yesterday. There were some skirmishes that took place on the street, to my understanding.

But when we have those resources -- and even the homicide last night, we had resources nearby, they just weren't right there when it happened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But (inaudible). One thing to have police officers visible. If there was no police officers visible, fist fights would go on for a while or are you thinking about adding just police officers on the corners and such, just to have a presence?

LOVELL: That's possible. But I think for us it's where can we deploy officers where they're safe? It doesn't help to have one officer in a place where they're kind of in the middle of something and can't respond and don't have cover to keep themselves safe.

So I think it's really a resource issue in that how do we operationalize the most effective groups of officers in places . But we never know where these are going to take place.

We have an idea of where this caravan was going so we focused there. Throughout the downtown core. There's a lot of street corners, parking structures, things of that nature where these things can happen.

And it's hard to have officers at all of these at all times.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) question for the Mayor. You mentioned the (inaudible) right now to come up with (inaudible). A number -- you mentioned the coalition that was (inaudible) and the importance of having that (inaudible). A number of groups within that coalition are groups that are calling for your resignation.

And while you aren't going to resign (inaudible), I am curious just for your thoughts on how you can reach -- speak to those coalition members so they can actually have your back (inaudible)?

WHEELER: That's a fantastic question and I appreciate you asking. The question is how do I create the same coalition I created last August when some of the members of the coalition are, in fact, calling for my resignation?

And the answer is because it's not all about me. It's about the community. It's about who we are, it's about who we want to be. And it's about taking a stand against violence.

And even last year a number of those coalition groups spoke out against me at the press conference, which I had organized. And I was okay with it.

Because it's okay to have differences of opinion when it comes to politics.

[16:45:00]

But what isn't okay and where we should have no difference of opinion is when it comes to violence, we should all stand together.

And it doesn't matter what our political affiliations are, we should stand together because we denounce violence and we know it's not the right way to solve our political differences.

And so I will continue to reach out to whoever will work with me to denounce violence and bring this to a peaceful conclusion.

I will reach out to whoever wants to work with me and my colleagues as we move forward on reimagining what policing can be so that it's equitable for everybody.

And for those who don't want to work with me, maybe they'd work with one of my colleagues or maybe they'd work with Mike or maybe they'd work with the chief.

This is an all hands on deck call. And so in the days ahead, that's what we're doing.

In fact, this morning, I spoke to a number of leaders in the black community and talked about the importance of not only their engagement but the importance of their leadership as we move forward.

Because, ultimately, the community will listen to them, I believe, at a time when we're having this national reckoning around racial justice and equity and police reform.

And so we'll continue to work to build the coalitions that we can to stand in opposition to the violence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Mayor, the president --

WHEELER: Could --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president is watching this right now. Because he's just on his favorite medium, he's talking about you. And he says -- he has a number of negative things to say about you.

But he says that, "Wheeler would like to blame and the federal government for going in but he hasn't seen anything yet."

Do you take that as a threat to send in more federal forces or do you think that just continues this ongoing (inaudible)?

WHEELER: That's classic Trump. Mr. President, how can you think that a comment like that, if you're watching this, is in any way helpful?

It's an aggressive stance, it is not collaborative.

I certainly reached out, I believe in a collaborative manner by saying earlier that you need to do your part and I need to do my part. And then we both need to be held accountable.

And I think it would be helpful not for me to tell you how to do your job because, frankly, I don't appreciate it when you tell me how to do mine.

But this would be a good time for all of us to stand together, to lock arms, to denounce the violence. To make a commitment to the kind of changes and reforms that the people in this country are demanding. And let's work together.

Wouldn't that be a message? Donald Trump and Ted Wheeler working together to help move this country forward? Why don't we try that for a change?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you spoken to the president?

WHEELER: No, I've never met the president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mayor, if I could follow up on something. Jo Another Hardesty with a plan to transition herself as police commissioner. What do you think about that?

WHEELER: She and I have had many conversations about bureaus. She knows that we will be making a bureau shift in the near term as Commissioner Elect Ryan joins us in just about a week and-a-half. And I've had a number of conversations with Dan.

I have no plans to transfer the police bureau at this point when we know what the constitution of the council is in January. Everything's on the table.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mayor Wheeler, you mentioned this idea of responsibility (inaudible) here in Portland about stop with you (ph). Do you think you're taking enough responsibility for the violence we've seen through the protests in Portland?

WHEELER: I ask myself that question every day. I go to bed with that question foremost in my mind. And when I wake up in the morning, that's the first question I ask myself.

Am I doing everything that I possibly can to end the violence in this community? Am I doing everything I possibly can to hear and understand different perspectives about what people want our community to be and how they want to envision it going forward? Am I doing everything that I can to meaningfully engage the community as we go through this time of crisis together?

Make no mistake about it. This is a very challenging time for everyone. There's a lot of anxiety, there's a lot of fear. This is a time when this generation is being called to rise up.

And I ask myself what more do I need to do at each and every moment. And sometimes, honestly, I have found myself coming up short.

And when I come up short, I acknowledge it, I admit it and then I move on. I fix what needs to be fixed and I work with whoever I need to work with to make things right.

And that's the path that we're on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mayor Wheeler (inaudible).

WHEELER: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So there was just sort of this sense of palpable sense that something might go wrong yesterday. And I think it's a fairly predictable outcome when you have two sort of diametrically opposed groups meeting in this fashion.

Would you say the city did everything in its power to avoid this outcome?

WHEELER: It's hard for me to stand here today with a human being dead and say we did everything we possibly could.

[16:50:00]

Either myself individually as the mayor of this city or people in the community at large. It's hard for me to sit here and make that proclamation.

Over somebody who has lost their lives. And I think about that family and what they're going through today. So I can't make that statement today and I think it would preposterous for me to do so.

But I'm certainly being introspective, I'm working with my team and others. And we're talking about how do we make sure that that is the only time somebody dies on the streets of our city that way.

It was one too many.

Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Any other questions for either Chuck Lovell or Mike Schmidt, the district attorney?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One further.

[Break in audio]

MIKE SCHMIDT, COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY, MULTNOMAH COUNTY, OREGON: The questions reference the policy I put on (inaudible). That policy very specifically allows my office to work with PPB to focus our effort on violent crime. And that's what we're doing.

We're putting all of our resources towards that. I had a deputy out all last night at the crime scene with detectives working this case.

We've had gun violence, homicides happening across our community, domestic violence is up. We are prioritizing the resources of the district attorney's office to continue to work on violent crime.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have a question that's not directly related to last night but just in general.

In your press conference you already mentioned the (inaudible). In looking at the past 90 days, are there any instances where you feel like you could charge a police officer for violence against a member of the public?

SCHMIDT: Like many people, I wake up most mornings and I get the update from the police. I look at media coverage. I go on to Twitter like everybody else, see clips.

And of course, I've seen things that I think are -- do not look appropriate. But the question you're asking really requires us to gather evidence and do more than just see a video clip online.

There's a process for that. The independent police review takes reports. I recommend any member of the community that has those types of allegations to reach out to IPR.

The bureau has the internal affairs division. They will look at those things. We work with both of those organizations.

Once we have enough evidence together to see whether or not the law was broken. And where the law was broken, we are going to apply equally just like we would to anybody else.

But I've got to say -- we look together with our partners. We have to make cases. That's interviewing witnesses, video clips, getting all the information we possibly can.

And that is underway in certain circumstances right now, both with IPR and internal affairs division so we continue to partner with them. And when we have prosecutable cases we will take those.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nick (inaudible).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last question.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One last question for the mayor. It really seems like there are a lot of people out there who are angry, that are probably people who are going to seek retribution. What are you doing besides asking them to stay home? (Inaudible).

WHEELER: So first of all, there are people who on social media say they're going to come to Portland and seek retribution.

First of all, I would say they don't know what they are seeking retribution for. The investigation is still underway. And even our police chief doesn't have enough facts to be able to suggest that retribution -- retribution for what? At this point.

Number two. We are meeting later this afternoon -- local, regional and state law enforcement -- and we will discuss a strategy. Because we're aware of the fact that this could be a potential flash point.

And so that's why I'm asking people if you're from out of town and you're reading something on social media, please understand if you're reading any facts on social media, they're probably wrong. Because we don't have all the facts yet.

That's why the investigative unit is out on the street right now, they are out on the street. That why they're talking to witnesses, that's why they are working with local businesses to gain access to any film footage they may have about what happened last night.

And they are still assembling the facts.

So this is not the time to get hot headed because you read something on Twitter that some guy made up in his mother's basement. That's not the right time or the right place.

So let's wait. Let's get the facts. And let's collectively work together to address the violence that we're facing.

[16:55:00]

I don't think anybody, anybody, from any political persuasion to see anybody else die. I don't, you don't. Let's all work together and make sure that doesn't happen. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. That's it for -- we're out of time, folks. I appreciate everybody being patient up front. I thank Mayor Wheeler, Chief Lovell, and district attorney Schmidt.

If you have any other questions of the mayor's office, you can just put them -- forward to me. You know how to get hold of me.

CABRERA: You've been listening in to a press conference in Portland, Oregon.

The mayor attacking President Trump after a night of violence that turned deadly in Portland where protesters clashed with counter- protesters who were Trump supporters who came through.

And it's believed a Trump supporter is the person who ended up dead. Not a lot in the investigation as far as that update that we just heard there.

I want to bring in Josh Campbell right now who was there at the press conference live who's been following the developments in this story.

Josh, this has just escalated yet again. With the war of words between the mayor of Portland responding to the president and the president in real time responding back to the mayor.

CAMPBELL: Yes. It's just fascinating in this era where here we are three and-a-half years into the administration but we continue to the president basically live tweeting things that he sees on cable news to include this press conference that we just heard from the mayor.

And this followed the president criticizing the mayor, the mayor coming out in full force -- you can here him behind, just leaving his press conference -- telling the president that your campaign of fear is undemocratic.

He actually said, in his words, "You want me to stop the violence that you helped create."

Really taking it to President Trump. Some of his vitriolic caustic rhetoric that the president has been using in describing not only officials here in Portland, but what has been going on.

As this was going on, as I mentioned, the president seemed to be watching and live tweeting it actually saying to the mayor a number of disparaging things.

But saying that basically, you haven't seen anything yet when it comes to the federal forces here in this city. Of course, that was a point of controversy for weeks here as the president sent in federal officers to try to protect this courthouse.

You had so many protesters and rioters and looters coming out and saying that it's their increased presence that's fueling their agitation. And so it was just this cycle.

But nevertheless, you hear the president saying that -- obviously threatening, perhaps, to send more forces here.

One thing that Mayor Wheeler did that we have not heard from the president is the mayor was saying that he wants to reset. He wants to, obviously, see peace in his city here.

Local officials have come under criticism for how the police department has handled things, for how federal officials handled things. But you really have the mayor saying he wants to pause, reset and stop the violence that's continued night after night.

Now finally, it's worth noting that the one thing that happened overnight is something that we haven't seen to the degree that we saw last night in the past.

And that is, in addition to protesters and some of the rioters, we saw hundreds of pro-Trump supporters amass outside of Portland and drive into downtown in a caravan.

That leading to violent confrontations between the pro-Trump group, between some of the other demonstrators. Police officers telling us that they made a number of arrests overnight following the encounters.

We also know one person was shot and killed.

Police officers said that they heard gunfire, rushed to the scene overnight. There was a man that was laying dead in the street. Our colleagues at "The New York Times" saying that that man had a hat with an insignia of a far-right group here in Portland.

And at that press conference we just heard was so many questions about what happens tonight. Because there have been indications on social media that perhaps there will be other far right and pro-Trump people that are coming into the city seeking retribution for that person's death.

The mayor and the police chief saying look, to those members of the public, press pause. This investigation is still underway. They don't yet have those details.

But obviously, if past is prologue, we see that social media continues to incite a lot of violence to whip up a lot of fear and anger, especially here in this city. And again, we have a president now who is fueling that fire.

And this morning, rather than condemning the violence, President Trump saying that it wasn't unexpected because of, in his words, lack of leadership here by the city.

I asked the mayor to respond to that, the president saying that this violence was inevitable. The mayor said, yes, it was inevitable because, in his words, the president continues to stoke fear and violence.

So just a chaotic situation here. It will probably continue tonight and into the foreseeable future again. As the anger just continues to build.

CABRERA: And, hopefully, no more violence though tonight. And I think there are a lot of people on edge. Wondering what the next move is.

Josh Campbell, please stand by. I want to reset for our viewers what has transpired in just the past hour or so.

And really bring you up to speed on what happened in the last 24 hours in the wake of the nation's racial reckoning and outcry against police brutal pit.