Patriot Prayer Founder: My 'Good Friend' Got Killed

Joey Gibson talks to the Associated Press
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Aug 30, 2020 3:10 PM CDT
Patriot Prayer Founder: Dead Man Was My Friend
A man is treated after being shot Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020, in Portland, Ore.   (AP Photo/Paula Bronstein)

A man who was fatally shot after supporters of President Trump clashed with left-wing protesters on the streets of Portland, Oregon, was a supporter of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer, its founder said Sunday. Joey Gibson, head of the group based in Washington state, told the AP the man who was shot to death Saturday night was a "good friend," although he did not identify him. Gibson said he was also in Portland on Saturday night when the Trump supporters clashed with Black Lives Matter protesters downtown. Gibson arrived at the scene of the shooting shortly after it happened and video from the scene showed he was briefly corralled in a nearby gas station by angry protesters.

"I can't say much right now. All I can do is verify that he was a good friend and a supporter of Patriot Prayer," Gibson said of the shooting victim in a text exchange. He said he would make a fuller statement later Sunday. Police issued a plea for any information related to the killing, including videos, photos, or eyewitness accounts. The shooting happened about 15 minutes after a caravan of about 600 vehicles that were part of a pro-Trump rally left downtown. It wasn't clear if the shooting was related to the clashes between Trump supporters and counterprotesters in Portland, which has become a flashpoint in the national Black Lives Matter protests since George Floyd was killed in May and an increasing centerpiece in Trump's law-and-order re-election campaign theme.

(More Portland stories.)

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