PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland State University (PSU) has lifted a shelter-in-place alert less than thirty minutes after issuing one late Friday evening after a group attempted to occupy a building on campus during an "otherwise peaceful protest."
The Portland Police Bureau (PPB) said Saturday morning that there was a planned "peaceful and lawful" demonstration and that officers had been asked to provide support for the university's campus police. The demonstrators gathered around 8 p.m. near the Walk of Heroines and left around midnight, and officers "did not engage with the crowd."
PSU added Saturday afternoon that a small group attempted to occupy the Parkmill building, a lecture hall, which is when the university issued the shelter-in-place alert. The group left before officers arrived, and the alert was lifted after the building was secured, PSU said.
Two were arrested after spraying graffiti on campus property, with another arrested on probable cause not related to the protest, according to PPB.
After lifting the shelter-in-place alert, PSU asked people to avoid the area in front of Hoffman Hall around 10:12 p.m.
On Friday evening, a KGW reporter on scene reported a crowd of about 100, dressed in black, gathered north of Peter Stott Field. It appeared to be a peaceful gathering with a megaphone. Later, around 10:44 p.m., a PSU spokesperson told KGW in an email that it is "an ongoing protest on campus that we are monitoring."
"At one point, there were concerns about violence, which led us to issue a brief shelter in place. That shelter in place is now over. The environment has since calmed down and we have resumed monitoring," she said.
The university posted on social media at 9:38 p.m. that there was an "incident on campus" and asked people to avoid the area, and that updates will be sent via PSU Alert.
PSU then told KGW that the situation was "rapidly evolving," and that the university's Campus Public Safety Office was responding with assistance from the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) in the South Park Blocks area.
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