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On Tuesday, Portland police said groups of people set up barricades on the street, threw glass bottles and pointed lasers Tuesday night. Around 4 a.m. Wednesday, federal police used tear gas against protesters; the tear gas was witnessed by some KOIN 6 News staff.
The letter, signed by Senator Ron Wyden, Senator Jeff Merkley, Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici, and Congressman Earl Blumenauer, references protester Donovan LaBella, who was shot in the head with crowd control munition.
LaBella is still recovering at the hospital.
The lawmakers demanded to know more about the federal government's response to protests that have roiled Portland nightly for nearly two months. They said they are especially concerned that the Marshals Service and other federal agents working the protests are taking direction from federal officials outside of Oregon.
The mayor added that he had asked Wolf to clean up the federal buildings in Portland, which have been covered with graffiti since the nightly protests against police brutality began.
Wheeler's remarks come the same day that several Democrats in Oregon's congressional delegation sent a letter to Wolf and Attorney General William Barr condemning the tactics used by federal agents and calling the federal response to protests "intolerable."
The federal employee who critically wounded a 26-year-old demonstrator on Saturday is assigned to a specialized tactical unit of the U.S. Marshals Service, members of Oregon's congressional delegation revealed in a letter Tuesday to top federal law enforcement officials.
"In light of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling…we urge the Department of Defense (DOD) to immediately update its policies to eliminate the ban on open transgender military service," lawmakers wrote in the letter. "Additionally, to prevent further harm to transgender service members, we urge the DOD to instruct the Department of Justice (DOJ) to negotiate the end to litigation challenging the ban."