Portland police investigating violent assault, say no arrests made as protest organizers denounce attack

The organizers of peaceful Portland demonstrations protesting police brutality denounced this week’s vicious attack on a truck driver as police say no arrests have yet been made in the assault.

Sgt. Kevin Allen, Portland Police’s public information officer, told Fox News early Tuesday morning that the man who was seen on video being viciously attacked during a riot late Sunday is “recovering” from his injuries. Allen said police continue to investigate the case, but no arrests had been made as of 12:25 a.m. local time.

Shortly before 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, police responded to a 911 call from someone who reported that protesters “chased a white Ford” four-by-four truck, which then crashed in the downtown area, according to a department press release. Protesters then dragged the driver out of the vehicle, one caller stated. Another told police an estimated nine to 10 people began “beating the guy,” the caller stated.

When police arrived, they discovered the man unconscious and transported him to a local hospital.

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“Investigators learned that the victim may have been trying to help a transgender female who had some of her things stolen in the area of Southwest Taylor and 4th Ave, the location where this incident began,” police said late Monday.

Drew Hernandez, who recorded video of the attack, told Fox News' Dan Springer on Monday that he believed the man was helping the transgender woman when the crowd began targeting him and the woman he was with, who then got back into the vehicle and drove off.

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"I think he just felt extremely threatened," Hernandez said. "They chased him... until he finally crashed. When they finally caught up to him, they went nuts.

Hernandez described the attack as “extremely violent.”

“Sometimes I forget I'm walking the streets of an American city in the Northwest,” he said. “Sometimes it feels like you're walking in a Third World country."

Meanwhile, some of the women behind Moms United for Black Lives told The Portland Mercury that the attack and similar instances of violence detract from their intended goal.

"We want the public to know that we’re not those folks beating people up and robbing them," said one of the group’s co-founders and organizers, Danialle James, who called such crimes “a stain on the moment.”

James, fellow organizer Elisha Warren, and several other group members have protested police brutality and systemic racism since the end of May, when George Floyd, a Black man, died while in police custody. Floyd was handcuffed when a white police officer held his knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes despite Floyd’s shouts that he could not breathe.

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Warren told The Portland Mercury the group does not “stand for what’s going on downtown.”

"The violence with folks who are not with Black Lives Matter are taking away from the narrative,” she said, according to the report.

Fox News’ Louis Casiano contributed to this report.