Federal officers are alleged to have opened fire with pepper balls on a crowd of protesters and cops after their own bungling colleagues accidentally teargassed them.
Portland police commander Franz Schoening testified in court that protests outside the South Portland ICE headquarters had been “mild” in September—but swelled after Donald Trump announced National Guard troops were headed to the city.
He said violence directed at federal officers remained limited, while agents “sometimes used excessive force,” including the Oct. 18 incident during a No Kings protest when ICE officers accidentally fired a canister that bounced onto the roof of the facility, hitting their own colleagues.
This then led to the armed officers on the roof shooting back into the driveway, striking local police and protesters with pepper balls and tear gas of their own, according to Schoening, Reuters reported.
Schoening’s testimony came as U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, who was appointed by Trump, began a bench trial to decide whether protests at the immigration site amounted to an obstruction that could justify a military deployment.
Troops are currently blocked from Portland under her Oct. 4 temporary restraining order, which found the White House case “untethered to the facts.”
City attorney Caroline Turco argued the gatherings “were not violent” and didn’t warrant troops. DOJ lawyer Eric Hamilton countered that a summer of agitation impeded immigration enforcement.
The picture painted by Portland police matches earlier reporting, which reviewed police logs describing tiny, “low-energy” nights—10 to 20 people, minimal action—before Trump’s order.
After the president’s Sept. 27 directive, crowds swelled and sporadic force followed, according to court-filed summaries and on-the-ground accounts.
Oregon law restricts tear gas unless police face a legally declared “riot”—a threshold Schoening said hadn’t been met since mid-June—making the federal volleys “startling,” and impermissible for local officers, per the Straits Times.
The legal fight is Portland’s test case. President Trump and the White House have floated similar justifications in other Democratic-led cities, while Oregon officials insist routine policing was working before troop talk—and say the federal show-ups made things worse.
The Portland trial without jury before Judge Immergut continues.
The Daily Beast has contacted DHS and the White House for comment.
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