The shooting of a Black man by law enforcement in Washington state sent shockwaves through the Pacific north-west on Friday, and threatened to increase tensions in the region around Portland, Oregon, where protesters against racial injustice have clashed repeatedly with rightwing groups.
Friends and family identified the dead man as Kevin E Peterson Jr, 21, and said he was a former high school football player and the proud father of an infant daughter.
Peterson was shot on Thursday evening in a bank parking lot in Hazel Dell, an unincorporated area of Vancouver, Washington, about 12 miles north of Portland.
Peterson’s father said his son had no criminal record and he had no idea how he would be involved in an incident that would draw law enforcement. Peterson appears to have been shot while on the phone with his partner, OregonLive added.
Several dozen protesters gathered into the early morning hours on Friday as investigators processed the scene of the shooting. Bystanders said Peterson’s car was towed but his body remained at the scene for hours.
Mac Smiff, an organizer of Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, Oregon, said he knew Peterson’s sister and had spent more than five hours at the scene.
“They didn’t have a whole lot of information,” he said of family members. “There was a ton of grief, a ton of grief. He’s 21 and has a baby, an infant. They’re not sure what happened, why the encounter took place. Everyone was extremely disheveled and confused.”
The elder Peterson told the newspaper that he arrived at the scene at about 6pm on Thursday but “did not get a chance to identify my son” until 5.30am on Friday.
Jake Thompson, a high school acquaintance of Peterson, said he took photos at the wedding of Peterson’s parents in Portland in 2018. On Friday, he posted a black-and-white photo of Peterson in a tuxedo with a big grin.
“I didn’t sleep much last night,” he said on Friday.
In a statement, Clark county sheriff Chuck Atkins said a joint city-county narcotics taskforce was conducting an investigation just before 6pm Thursday and chased a man into the parking lot of a bank, where he fired a gun at them. A firearm was recovered at the scene, Atkins said.
Authorities have not named the person who was shot, but Peterson Sr told the Oregonian/OregonLive the person was his son. Atkins referenced the Peterson family in his remarks but did not confirm Kevin E Peterson Jr was the person who was killed.
“I can say that our agency is grieving as is the Peterson family and the community,” Atkins said. “As the community grieves, I call for there to be a respectful and dignified observance of the loss of life in this matter.”
Peterson played football at Union high school in Vancouver, Washington, loved sports of any kind and was a big personality liked by everyone at school, Thompson said.
Other agencies, including Washington state patrol and the Camas police department, responded to help investigate. The Camas police department has been designated as the lead investigative agency.
A vigil was planned for Friday evening in Vancouver, Washington, by the NAACP chapter.
In Hazel Dell, more than a dozen Black Lives Matter protesters lined a busy street in on Friday in front of the US Bank parking lot where Peterson died. They held signs reading, “Honk for Black lives”, “White silence is violence” and “Scream his name”.
Two small bouquets of flowers were tied to a fence where the shooting happened.
Brooklyn Tidwell, 16, said she and other students attended the rally instead of going to school.
“Black lives aren’t treated the same as my life,” said Tidwell, who is white. “We should be voicing this, and we should be protesting this because it needs to change.”
Daniel Thompson, 26, brought a bouquet of pink roses to leave at the scene. Thompson, who is Black, said he did not know Peterson, but could identify with the shooting death.
“I walk this street every day. It’s sickening. It could have been any one of us,” he said.
