Police Shooting Washington
People gather during a counter protest against Black Lives Matter in Vancouver, Wash., Friday, Oct. 30, 2020, after a candlelight vigil for Kevin Peterson Jr., who was killed in Thursday's shooting with police involved. (AP Photo/Paula Bronstein)

By Gillian Flaccus, AP

Tensions boiled over into unrest late Friday following a vigil for a Black man shot and killed by law enforcement in a city near Portland, Oregon, in southwestern Washington state.

Mourners gathered in Hazel Dell, an unincorporated area of Vancouver, Washington, where family and friends say Kevin E. Peterson Jr., 21, was shot Thursday night. The city is about 12 miles (19 kilometers) north of Portland.

Hundreds of people gathered for the vigil Friday evening, with some holding signs reading, “Honk for Black lives. White silence is violence” and “Scream his name.”

Nearby, tensions flared between left- and right-wing protesters. Video recorded by journalists in a parking lot showed two groups of people shouting at each other. Also, some armed demonstrators gathered near a building they told reporters they were protecting.

The crowds ultimately fizzled out near the vigil but a group of hundreds of protesters later marched through downtown Vancouver. Windows were shattered, flags were burned and federal agents clothed in riot gear surrounded a building — warning people that trespassing on federal property would be subject to arrest.

Multiple videos showed two vehicles facing each other just after midnight on a downtown street. Two shots were heard but reporters at the scene said it didn’t appear anyone was hit.

Authorities declared an unlawful assembly and ordered protesters to disperse. At least one person appeared to have been detained, according to video posted online by a journalist.

Family and friends had described Peterson as a former high school football player and the proud father of an infant daughter.

In a statement, Clark County Sheriff Chuck Atkins said a joint city-county narcotics task force was conducting an investigation just before 6 p.m. 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 Kevin E. Peterson Sr. told The Oregonian/OregonLive the person was his son, Kevin E. Peterson Jr. Atkins referenced the Peterson family in his remarks but did not confirm Peterson 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. There is always the potential for misinformation, doubt and confusion – and there may be those who wish to sow seeds of doubt.”

The investigation has been referred to the Southwest Washington Independent Investigation Team, and the Camas Police Department is taking the lead, Atkins said.

Investigators said Friday evening that the narcotics task force had contacted a man suspected of selling illegal drugs in a motel parking lot and that he fled on foot with officers following. The man produced a handgun and the officers backed off, investigators said. A short time later, the man encountered three Clark County deputies, all of whom fired their pistols at the man, they added. They did not say the man fired a handgun found at the scene, making it unclear what happened just before the shooting.

The community is a short drive north across the Columbia River from Portland, where racial justice protests have played out nearly every night since George Floyd’s killing by police in May. Southwest Washington is also home to the right-wing group Patriot Prayer, which has held rallies for President Donald Trump in Portland in recent months that ended in violence.

vancouver protest riot
People gather during a counter protest against Black Lives Matter in Vancouver, Wash., Friday, Oct. 30, 2020, after a candlelight vigil for Kevin Peterson Jr. (AP Photo/Paula Bronstein)

Earlier Friday, several people paid their respects to Peterson at the site of the shooting.

Mac Smiff, an organizer of Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, said he knows Peterson’s sister and spent more than five hours at the scene.

“There was a ton of grief, a ton of grief. He’s 21 and has a baby, an infant,” Smiff said. “They’re not sure what happened, why the encounter took place. Everyone was extremely disheveled and confused.”

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 suit and bow tie as he flashed a big grin.

“I didn’t sleep much last night,” he said Friday.

Peterson played football at Union High School in Vancouver, Washington, loved sports of any kind and was a big personality who was known and liked by everyone at school, Thompson said.

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87 COMMENTS

  1. “He’s 21 and has a baby, an infant”

    How about this, don’t deal drugs. When the cops come after you, don’t pull out a gun. Don’t run. Put your hands up, and take your arrest like a big boy. I’m sick of this “racial injustice” narrative. These are dumb criminals resisting arrest. The reason half the country has lost their mind is because of evil people like Kamala Harris that tells the citizens that cops are hunting down black men to kill them. She doesn’t care about the division, death, and destruction that causes because that narrative helps her gain power. She might be the president very soon.

    • “He’s 21 and has a baby, an infant”
      Why don’t we hear about the officer he shot at? Maybe the officer is young, has a wife and kids?

      Maybe the headlines should read: “drug dealer flees and shoots at young married officer with kids.”
      I’m not sure who the drug dealer shot at, but I’m trying to make a point. It seems the criminal is now portrayed as the victim and news headlines like to push a narrative.

      • Well, according to the MSM and the left (but I repeat myself…) he IS a victim – because he’s black! End of story.

        Personally, I hope these kinds of incidents keep on happening in the Democrat-run cities… not because I celebrate the loss of life, property and livelihood, but because the more often normal, sane people see the left supporting – hell, nearly deifying – these thugs and losers, they will finally see the light as to what’s really going on in this country.

        • “…they will finally see the light as to what’s really going on in this country.”

          Most people only “know” what they read in headlines or hear said by the people around them. It would need to affect them personally to get their attention, and for that to happen for most people the leftists will need to gain more power. Of course, by that point, it’ll be too late to vote our way out of the mess.

        • Notice they always mention how good these kids were and their upcoming rap album, but they never mention where they worked. It’s almost like none of these “victims” are ever gainfully employed. “He was a junior assistant manager at Walgreens”.

          Nope.

    • Who protested when the cops were shot in their car in LA? Or, the cops in New York? Or, cops anywhere?

      Some of the shootings of young black men need to be addressed – some cops are indeed too willing to shoot at dumb kids. (Think Tamir Rice) These rioters don’t just protest innocents though, they want to protest for every thug who happens to be dark skinned.

      • Ah, yes, the Rice Case. A young person wielding an apparent firearm was shot by the responding police officers. Dispatch informed the officers of a young, Black man with a gun…the officers thought it was an active shooter event. Rice was shot by the officers when they arrived on the scene. Ohio investigated and found nothing. Ohio convened a grand jury which did not find cause to charge the officers. The feds drew this out for years as a civil rights case and just dropped it a day or so ago for lack of evidence to the contrary.

        You’re going for the emotional hook…not the facts…again.

        • The facts, you say. Watch the video again. Cops rolled up on the kid, all but running him over. Both cops bail out guns blazing. They SAY THAT they yelled “drop the gun”, but the fact is, two seconds after the car arrives, the kid is dead.

          That’s not emotion, that’s facts. Qualified immunity covers all sorts of cowardly conduct.

          • …or, in your case, emotionally grasping for an interpretation that feels good to PAUL…you are seeing what you want to see…the investigation / grand jury didn’t see it your way (juries are not like Burger King where you get it your way just because ya feels it should be so).

            I agree that qualified immunity is overused…judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and officers should be culpable for their actions / decisions.

        • I agree with Paul. The shooting happened as he described. To make matters worse, the person who called it specifically told the dispatcher that he thought it was a toy gun. Apparently that critical fact was not relayed to the officers. It WAS NOT an “active shooter” situation–the kid was the only one at the bus stop. There is another factor in these types of situations: when the police roll up on someone and yell, “Freeze, drop the gun!” The absolutely normal reaction of a typical law abiding individual is to turn towards the person yelling at them–and it gets them shot.

        • Old fart in Montana says:

          “A young person wielding an apparent firearm”

          Are you lying or pretending you know what happens when you don’t?

          Tamir Rice did not have a gun in his hand when the police officers arrived, they claimed he was reaching for it in his waistband so they shot him.

          Do you believe it is OK to lie about the circumstances of the shooting because the kid is black? Or are you just ignorant?

          By the way, how’s that hoax virus doing in Montana, no problem there right?

          Trump / Covid 2020

    • We could so get rid of this kind of shit, just legalize all drugs, let them kill themselves while major corporations are making the profits, street gunfights are 99% over.

    • “…hundreds of protesters later marched through downtown Vancouver. Windows were shattered, flags were burned…”

      Sounds like one of those “fiery but mostly peaceful” protests we’ve been hearing so much about. Rioting? Nonsense. Nobody riots anymore.

      Maybe next they’ll refer to the TSA-branded “guide to making the world into Orwell’s 1984” and start calling them “enhanced” protests.

      • Maybe next they’ll refer to the TSA-branded “guide to making the world into Orwell’s 1984” and start calling them “enhanced” protests.

        Well, considering that in most of the Western world we’re already so far into Newspeak that “Covid Lockdown” is code for “police state” over a virus that’s really not that dangerous…

        But don’t take my word for it, here’s the CDC’s IFR info from the most recent update:

        IFR, Current Best Estimate
        0-19 years: 0.00003
        20-49 years: 0.0002
        50-69 years: 0.005
        70+ years: 0.054

        https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/planning-scenarios.html

        But hey, let’s not go further down that rabbit hole. Someone might get all offended when it’s pointed out that this leads to some really serious questions about current policy that require an actual adult conversation about upside and downside risk. Apparently NO ONE is capable of this conversation in a meaningful way. No one on either side.

        I mean, if one follows this specifically they find that that 70+ cohort means, based on population, that 1,999,620 people over 70 might die if we do exactly nothing at this point, and that 64.91% of those people would be over 80. And the 80+ cohort would account for 51.36% of all projected deaths.

        No one wants to have that conversation because it seems horrible, like we might just let nearly 2 million seniors die. Of course, they are also avoiding the conversation about how we could use those 20-49 to generate the resources to protect seniors (which we currently are not doing).

        We can’t circle the wagons around the vulnerable if we have no fucking wagons. And we’re headed down the road to having no wagons, horses or anything else at breakneck speed all because the adults fucked off to the Bahamas and left the bottom 10% of children in charge of things.

        If we can’t tackle BIG obvious shit like this then we’re going to be run by $12/hour TSA morons on everything.

        I doubt we can have a rational conversation about the 2A, violence issues or anything else when the “mask” thing boils down to the ReeeeEeeeEeeeeeeEEEEEeeee crowd on both sides screaming nonsense at each other. (And yes, when it comes to the main public debate of that both sides are complete morons.)

        • The average age of people dying from it is over the average life expectancy. Almost all of those people had multiple comorbidities listed along with Covid. They were already on their way out and caught Covid. I know of someone like this. Sometimes Covid ended their lives a few months early, and sometimes it didn’t make a difference. This is news, but it isn’t being widely reported because they need for people to be terrified so they’ll vote for Joe. It’s just more propaganda.

        • I doubt the US election has anything to do with British, Spanish, French or Germany lockdown policy.

          Nah, this is a bigger problem. The problem, generally speaking, is that the entire Western World is run by the bottom 10% of people in terms of intelligence because that’s who gets into both politics and “administration”.

  3. Felons, crooks, drug dealers, thugs, are always such great people just before they get stupid & die.
    Just ask anyone who knew them. Maybe his family or friends should have kept a closer eye on him if he was as sick as they are portraying him to be.
    Just another reason to Burn, Loot, & Murder.

  5. Yes indeed…Every thing was just rosy for the perp. He was this and that, sugar and spice and everything nice. If all of that were so he’d be alive and well today. For everyone else who did not do something stupid and invite the police to chase them down they are alive and well.
    There are police screw ups and innocent people are killed but that is a criminal and or civil matter. Marching around like useful idiot drama queens supporting someone whose actions initiated the tragedy only makes matters worse…It’s not selling.

  6. Yeah, I’m sure was startin to turn his life around! They just wait for another thug to get killed so they can go shoppin!

    • Because it’s Vancouver, WA, which is right across the Columbia River from Portland, OR. Get a map. LOL

        • There’s a Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and there’s a Vancouver, Washington, USA. The one in the USA is right across the Columbia River from Trash Fire, Oregon. Oh, sorry, autocorrect from Portland.

  10. I dunno, is selling drugs in a parking lot considered a critical small business under COVID? Did he have a Washington State retail sales license? When the local authorities showed up to conduct an inventory of his stock, he decided to re-locate. After all, it’s hard to make a profit when you have to worry about licenses and collecting the State Sales Tax with the PoPo breathing down your neck.

    I’m sure that he only carried a firearm in order to protect his business assets.

    As to his having an infant son…not relevant to the discussion…just chaff to obfuscate the facts of his felony criminal actions.

    • Having an infant child is the “Emotional Trigger” needed is insight people who are ruled by their emotion rather than their intellect. The Democrat Party has understood this about their acolytes since the 60’s. It’s easier to manipulate people’s emotions to achieve an ideology. Every Despot throughout history has relied on the emotional manipulation of the masses to lead societies to their own enslavement followed by their destruction. That is why We have been seeing the slow manipulation of the education system. The rewriting/removal of Our National Identity. Education the Best defense against Tyranny. A Society devoid of education relies on emotion to survive.

      • Very good synopsis of the problem…… it does start with education….. Ahmad that DOESN’T mean putting low IQ people into positions they have no business in….. that means helping people to achieve success in their OWN IQ sector….

  11. These cities are the perfect example of Democrat controlled Liberalism and as such the best advertisement for not voting for Democrats. The MSM has done all they can to not report this chaos and destruction unfortunately for Democrats the word is not only getting out, more importantly it is being felt by the citizens who are seeing their communities, businesses and livelihoods being destroyed right before their eyes. As much as many of them may support BLM, Criminal Justice Reform or LE Reforms. At the end of the day they can’t survive on destruction. This is much like the effects of the Chinese Virus. In the beginning people were willing to do what was necessary to “Flatten the Curve”. Then the goal post got moved. Now with the continued lock-downs people are starting to see their Livelihoods being destroyed with no hope or end in sight. As much as most people are willing to sacrifice for the common good once despair becomes the driving force anger is often the next emotion driven by a desire to survive. This is all culminating on Tuesday. People are looking for something that half the of the Nation will not get and how they react considering all the anger, vitriol and despair in Our society no one can know. My guess is We haven’t seen the worst of what society has to offer. Keep Your Powder Dry.

    • James Campbell prefers the company of men, but if a man isn’t available, he’ll settle for Geoff PR.

      Trump/Pence 2020

  13. It no longer matters WHY the person was shot and killed. At this point a black man could shoot AND kill 5 cops two pregnant women and a dog while shooting heroin, with a crack pipe in his mouth and a coke spoon in his free hand but when the cops shot back and killed him he would be described as an “upright citizen, a loving son, a local “entrepreneur” and a devout member of the church with a wife, a girlfriend and 17 children under the age of five and the local Target AND Walmart would be asked to donate ALL of their big screen TVs and sneakers to the general public in his honor and the local liquor stores would be expected to just leave their doors open after hours for the convenience of those self serve late night shoppers preparing for wakes and “life celebrations” for the dearly departed while the city (whatever is left of it) is burned to the ground by “peaceful protestors” ALL of whom knew and loved (insert name here) and are in such deep mourning that they are not even aware of what they are doing…

    • Yep.. their plans of division are working GREAT!
      Personally, I love it…..I just think these ghetto animals are so dumb you have to feel sorry for their dirty a$$es…. they will reap what they’ve sown….

  14. Remember when black folks didn’t automatically loot and murder after every justified po-leece shooting?!? Me neither…hope y’all are battle ready😕😕😕

  15. White silence is violence? WTF is that? Sick of the 13% of the US population that throw tantrums like 6 year old’s at the drop of a hat. Sorry but the problems in the Black community are of their own making. Not my fault.

    • It’s actually closer to 1% OF the 13% that is making ALL the noise the rest is .00001% of the white, Hispanic and Asian population.. The fact that it is mostly centered in major Dem controlled population centers makes it seem much larger than it really is…

      • And the media coverage… and censorship…

        Censorship from the left is a fucken problem man… far worse than their shitty propaganda, I mean, news.

        • But at least SOME of them have suddenly discovered that there MIGHT be a slight problem with the Biden family selling out the country to China, Ukraine , Russia and others for their own personal financial gain….

    • “White silence is violence? WTF is that?”

      It’s justification for them attacking you if you don’t join it the chorus of “BLM”…

      • What if I check my loaded chamber indicator while refusing to chant with them? Will they still attack me?

    • It’s an IQ issue…. whether you want to admit that or not depends on your own IQ…..
      Hence, we have an IQ problem in this country….. and the sooner people realize this and start to address the problem, the sooner we can get back to building a country…… without the low IQ beggars of society…

      • Rapidly approaching room temperature? Still measured in Fahrenheit or Celsius? Note the latter is smaller.

  16. the poverty crime moral social and economic decay pain misery and suffering that blue cities and states are experiencing right now is what future historians and political science majors will refer simply to as:
    “end stage democrat rule”

  17. The article still repeats a lie. George Floyd did not die from police action. He died from a self-inflicted drug overdose.

      • Read Chauvin, Lane, Keung, and Thao: The George Floyd Fall Guys by George Parry on The American Spectator from 12 August 2020. Pay SPECIAL attention to who he is/was at the end of the article. I got my medical degree at Creighton University School of Medicine.

      • You mean the paid shills?

        Numerous others, and apparently more professional’ have said otherwise. Besides, he was shouting “I can’t breathe” for 5 minutes randomly throughout the video… have you not heard of the boy who cried wolf? Did you even watch the full video? Crack heads gonna crack.

  18. Oh…. he was a future rapper… or jogger….
    I love hearing about these thugs dying…..I say good riddance…. one less pos that we handed to deal with when the real fun starts.
    …… can’t wait…

  20. It’s funny, I was raised in a white, upper middle class household in an upper middle class area that had a decent amount of diversity. Outright racism was NOT tolerated and we were taught to treat everyone as individuals. I DESPISED racism until pretty recently, and yet the increasingly blatant actions of the black community over the last few years have turned me into an outspoken and unapologetic racist, and I am far from alone in this.

    “White silence is violence” and other such bullshit is turning former allies against blacks.

    • Stick with me, Red, we have to remember that bullshit comes from around 1% of the black community, most are just like you and me. AND, there is 1% of our own community which are complete assholes whether discussing race or anything else.

      • You should go live in the ghetto for a while. It’s quiet enlightening. You’ll find the 1% is closer to the portion of the community that doesn’t consider criminality normal. That is why they riot. That is why the make criminals into martyrs.

        In the black community, when a scumbag gets put down they build shrines, protest and riot. In the white community when a scumbag gets put down, we realize our community just got a little better and go about our lives. It’s no surprise one of these groups is a never ending dumpster fire of failure and dysfunction.

  22. “There was a ton of grief, a ton of grief. He’s 21 and has a baby, an infant,” Smiff said. “

    If you’re an infant at 21 your parents are incompetent idiots or you need to be supervised 24/7

      • It depends on the individual, and when they are mature enough to take RESPONSIBILITY for thier actions. Legally you are an “adult” at 18, but some people never “grow up”.

    • How did you glean that he IS an infant at 21, even after correctly quoting the article?? He is a legal adult at 18 and RESPONSIBLE his own actions and decisions, just as everyone else is.

  23. We all knew it was coming. When these BLM/ANTIFA rioters/looters show up and meet resistance now at this point in the game, the resistance they meet will not wait to give them the upper hand.

    “Do we shoot to kill?”
    No. We shoot to end the threat.

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