PORTLAND, Ore. (KPTV/CNN) – Friends of the counter-protester shot and killed Saturday in Portland said he was not a radical.
39-year old Aaron J. Danielson was shot in the chest Saturday during a protest in downtown Portland.
Danielson was wearing a hat with the insignia of “Patriot Prayer,” a far-right group that supports President Trump.
His friends and family say the victim’s political beliefs have been distorted.
Luke Carillo said, “He was a proud American and a proud Portlander who absolutely loved this community and the people in it. We, his friends and his family, have seen multiple false reports calling ‘J’ everything from a radical to a racist and a fascist. Aaron J. Danielson was not a radical, he was not a racist, he was not a fascist. He was not an inciter or an instigator. He was a freedom-loving American who died expressing his beliefs, a right which is guaranteed to all of us through the Constitution.”
The Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office has officially rule Danielson’s cause of death as a homicide.
There is an ongoing investigation into the shooting, which was captured in a video posted to social media.
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