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Horrific moment ‘cops shoot Portland protester in the head with rubber bullet leaving him with gruesome injury’
DISTURBING footage shows the moment federal police allegedly shot a protester in the head with a rubber bullet in Portland.
Donavan LaBella, 26, is seen on video standing across the street from the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse Saturday night holding a speaker over his head.
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Met with jeers and curses as they stood outside the courthouse, federal police fired a gas or smoke canister at LaBella, who quickly tossed the canister away from his feet.
Seconds later, the federal officers allegedly returned fire on LaBella, shooting him in the head with an 'impact munition'.
Video shows LaBella falling to the ground immediately, the sound of the impact drowned out moments later by protestors shouting and running to his aid.
In another video obtained by The Sun but too graphic to show, protestors put pressure on LaBella’s right temple as LaBella coughed up blood and struggled to breathe.
Protestors were seen later carrying LaBella away from the courthouse.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler had placed restrictions on the Portland Police Bureau to avoid violent altercations between police and protestors, limiting the use of CS gas and LRAD “to only life safety situations.”
In a put out by hours after the incident, Wheeler asked federal officers to abide as well. “I am calling on the federal government to adhere to the same directives as our Portland Police Bureau when it comes to crown control munitions.”
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“Portland Police Chief Lovell knows my direction and expectation of the bureau: to end the nightly violence as quickly and safely as possible,” Wheeler’s statement read, adding the U.S. Marshals Service has opened a full investigation into Saturday night’s incident.
Videos of the incident shared on Twitter combined have been viewed over 500,000 times and have been shared by Portland politicians condemning the actions of federal police in their city. Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty demanded federal police withdraw from Portland. “While I absolutely condemn the federal troops’ presence in Portland,” she wrote in a , “I am not naive enough to think that their withdrawal alone will solve the issue.”
U.S. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon about the incident Sunday, saying “the consequences of President Trump unilaterally dispatching fed[eral] law enforcement” left LaBella shot in the head, and called on the president and Homeland Security to “answer why fed[eral] officers are acting like an occupying army.”
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In an interview with , LaBella’s mother Desiree said her son suffered facial and skull fractures but was responding to doctors and moving his limbs following surgery early Sunday morning.
“He was awake enough to give the OK to talk to me… He’s had some facial reconstruction surgery. They’re just watching him right now,” she said, adding doctors were working to drain blood from his brain and monitoring his neurological condition.
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Speaking at a military base in Florida Friday, Trump told acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf that Portland officials could not adequately control the protests in their city, prompting him to send federal troops for crowd-control measures.
“It was out of control,” the Trump saying. “The locals couldn’t handle it and you people are handling it very nicely.”
As officials denounced the federal troops’ actions and continued to express their condolences to LaBella and his mother, Desiree LaBella told Oregon Public Broadcasting she has yet to hear from a federal authority.
“In my opinion, the fault lies with the feds at the scene…needlessly firing into a general peaceful unarmed crowd and aiming for the head,” she said, adding the impact munitions are described as less lethal. “No rounds of any kind should be shot at any unarmed person.”