(Los Angeles) Two people were injured Thursday in Portland by federal police shooting, police in this Oregon city announced, an incident likely to fuel tensions in the United States, where a woman was killed the day before in Minneapolis by another federal agent.
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The federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in charge of the officers involved, wrote on
“Two people were hospitalized following a shooting involving federal agents,” municipal police explained in a press release.
PHOTO JOHN RUDOFF, REUTERS
FBI agents are present to begin the investigation.
The local branch of the FBI briefly announced that it was investigating the action of border police agents (CBP), in a message on X, before withdrawing its publication a few minutes later.
According to federal authorities, Border Patrol agents were seeking to detain the car’s passenger, “an undocumented Venezuelan linked to the prostitution arm of the transnational gang Tren de Aragua and recently implicated in shootings in Portland.” »
The person behind the wheel, accused of trying to run over the police officers, is also linked to this gang, according to the DHS.
PHOTO JENNY KANE, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The event took place in the parking lot of a medical clinic.
According to the daily The Oregonianone person was hit in the leg and the other in the torso in the parking lot of a medical clinic. It would be a married couple.
The condition of the victims, a man and a woman, remains “unknown,” according to Portland police.
Hot background
PHOTO EDUARDO MUNOZ, REUTERS
Protesters took to the streets of Minneapolis on Thursday, the day after a woman was shot and killed by an immigration police officer.
This new shooting involving federal agents comes just after the death of a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis the day before, killed by an immigration police agent (ICE).
His death pushed thousands of people to take to the streets and provoked heated controversy around the instructions given by the Trump administration to the police forces responsible for fighting immigration.
Vice-President JD Vance defended tooth and nail Thursday the theory of self-defense in the Minneapolis tragedy, ensuring that the agent involved acted to protect his life and that of his colleagues, while the victim tried to run them over by car.
But this version is strongly contested by the local democratic opposition, which relies on several videos showing the woman in a car and the police officer standing next to the vehicle.
“Just one day after the horrific violence committed by federal agents in Minnesota, our community here in Portland is now facing another deeply disturbing incident,” Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said in a statement.
“We cannot stand idly by as constitutional protections erode and bloodshed increases,” he added. “Portland is not a ‘training ground’ for militarized agents, and the ‘total force’ wielded by the administration has deadly consequences. »
The Democratic councilor called on ICE to “cease all operations in Portland until a thorough investigation can be conducted.”
He also called on residents to “calm” in this city which had experienced violent demonstrations during Donald Trump’s first term.
