Protesters briefly took control of the Burnside Bridge on Friday afternoon when well over 150 of them staged a 41/2-minute "die in" that brought traffic to a standstill.

They later marched into City Hall and demanded to speak with Mayor Charlie Hales, who addressed those who stuck around about an hour after the building closed at 5 p.m.

The activist group Don't Shoot Portland organized the march, which began at noon at the Vanport Square Studio on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Demonstrators moved through the Alberta neighborhood to inside the Lloyd Center mall before crossing the Burnside Bridge, marching through downtown and into City Hall.

Portland police officers on bikes, motorcycles and patrol vehicles were with them the throughout the march. They attempted to anticipate the protest's path by closing off parallel streets and diverting traffic. Officers sometimes blocked the path of protesters when they walked against the flow of traffic.

No one was arrested, said Sgt. Pete Simpson, a Portland police spokesman, said in an email. He said police deployed pepper spray in once instance against a man "who charged an officer or officers." The man got away, Simpson said.

Police protests and clashes in Charlotte paralyzed the North Carolina city for three days this week following the shooting death of Keith Lamont Scott, 43. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, a police officer faces a first-degree manslaughter accusation after video captured her shooting Terence Crutcher, 40, on Sept. 16.

Crutcher and Scott are two of at least 707 people killed by police this year, according to the Washington Post. The news organization maintains a national database tracking police shootings.

At the Burnside Bridge, protesters held a die-in where most had lain on the ground, silently for 41/2 minutes. That moment of silence represented the 41/2 hours Mike Brown's body remained unattended after he was shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, said Micah Rhodes, a spokesman for Don't Shoot Portland. Rhodes, with a red bullhorn, was among a handful of organizers who lead the march.

"Charlotte, North Carolina is in a state of emergency because black people and all of our allies, all of people of color, are furious with the treatment we've had," Rhodes said on the Burnside Bridge after the silence. "They are murdering us. They are brutalizing us. They oppress us every day. It's hard for us to get jobs. It's hard for us to get housing. It's hard for us to do anything that white people do on a regular basis."

Pastor J.W. Matt Hennessee of the Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church said he joined the protest to help keep it peaceful, "but at the same time supporting their need and right to protest."

On occasions that protesters got within inches of police lines, Hennessee often attempted to pull agitated marchers away from officers to keep tense moments from boiling over.

Protesters eventually marched to City Hall, where they stood outside Hales' office. A speaker said the protesters weren't going to leave until Hales came to address them.

Chants including "wake up, Portland" and "let's go, Charlie, Let's go" -- the latter punctuated by people pounding on walls -- echoed in the building.

Side-by-side graffiti messages were scrawled inside City Hall. One message read "we asked to talk and we can't even get that," and the other remarked negatively about police.

By 5 p.m., City Hall officials said the building was closing. Officials said they could be arrested if they remained inside the building.

Hales spoke to protesters inside City Hall around 6 p.m.

"Black lives matter," he said. "I believe that. They matter to me and they matter to a lot of people in this city."

Hales said he's interested in working with anyone who wants to keep people safe and help make the Portland Police Bureau more "humane."

"Your complaints and your concerns and your fears about what might happen on the streets of Portland are legitimate," he said. "What's happened in the rest of the country should not happen here. We have to make sure together that it doesn't."

Hales said he and Portland Police Chief Mike Marshman will meet at City Hall at 4 p.m. Tuesday to talk with anyone interested.

-- Tony Hernandez and Jim Ryan

thernandez@oregonian.com; jryan@oregonian.com

Mike Zacchino of The Oregonian/OregonLive staff contributed reporting