PORTLAND, Ore. — Federal agents shot and injured two people here Thursday afternoon, city officials said.
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said the shooting involved Border Patrol agents who were conducting a “targeted vehicle stop” involving a Venezuelan national.
“When agents identified themselves to the vehicle occupants, the driver weaponized his vehicle and attempted to run over the law enforcement agents,” McLaughlin said in a statement. She said the agent “fired a defensive shot.”
After the shooting, McLaughlin said, “the driver drove off with the passenger, fleeing the scene.”
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson (D) said the shooting was “deeply troubling” and called for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to end all operations in the city, referencing the fatal shooting of a woman by an ICE officer in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
“We cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts,” Wilson said in a statement. “Portland is not a ‘training ground’ for militarized agents, and the ‘full force’ threatened by the administration has deadly consequences.”
Portland police said they responded to reports of a shooting about 2:18 p.m. local time and determined federal agents had been involved.
The shooting appeared to have happened outside a medical center in Southeast Portland. The people who were shot then drove several miles east to an apartment building, where they called for help, police said.
Police found a man and woman with gunshot wounds at the apartment building about six minutes after they responded to the shooting, the department said. The two people were transported to a hospital, and their conditions are unknown.
At least one neighbor said he saw a man bleeding as he stopped his car there Thursday afternoon. Police cordoned off three blocks and the apartment complex, and they later expanded the blocked-off area as neighbors yelled and became visibly upset about immigration officials’ presence in the city.
The mood remained quiet but tense outside the medical center early Thursday evening. FBI agents lingered around an area sectioned off by red tape, and police escorted patients and staff members to their cars.
Wu reported from Washington.
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