Michael Strickland

UPDATE: Man accused of pulling gun on Portland protesters was armed with multiple magazines of ammo, prosecutor says

***

Updated at 2:31 a.m., Friday, July 8

A man pulled a gun near hundreds of people taking part in a Don't Shoot PDX protest Thursday evening and was later taken into custody by law enforcement officers in tactical gear.

Michael Strickland, 36, is facing misdemeanor menacing and second-degree disorderly conduct charges, according to jail records. He was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center late Thursday night, and then released on his own recognizance, jail and court records show.

Strickland will be arraigned Friday afternoon, Portland police said in a news release. Police identified Strickland as the man allegedly menacing people with a gun.

The man explained his actions to The Oregonian/OregonLive by saying he was surrounded by "anarchists" who were pushing him and telling him he needed to go. He identified the gun as a Glock.

The incident occurred as hundreds of people converged on downtown Portland Thursday night to express outrage and dismay after the deaths of two black men in back-to-back police shootings this week in Minnesota and Louisiana.

Upward of 1,000 people were on hand for the demonstration that started at Pioneer Courthouse Square. A separate gathering and march drew about 200 to a Southeast Portland park. They all gathered to demand justice in the wake of the latest in a series of racially tinged police shootings.

On Tuesday, 37-year-old Alton Sterling was fatally shot as he tussled with two white officers outside a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, convenience store in a predominantly black neighborhood. The shooting was caught on video and went viral online.

The next day in Minnesota, Philando Castile, 32, was shot to death during a traffic stop in suburban St. Paul. His girlfriend posted live video of the aftermath on Facebook, insisting he had been shot "for no apparent reason" while reaching for his wallet.

The deaths have sparked protests across the country, including one in Texas that set the stage for an ambush. Police say snipers shot and killed five officers and wounded seven others Thursday night. Three people were in custody and a fourth suspect was exchanging gunfire with authorities, Dallas Police Chief David Brown said early Friday morning.

In Portland, the rally began at 7 p.m. in Pioneer Courthouse Square with people waving signs -- "My very existence is considered resistance," "#THIS STOPSTODAY -- and speakers urging the crowd to get involved.

"As an individual, you can't do nothing," one person said.

The crowd quickly took the streets, disrupting traffic on Southwest 6th Avenue and chanting "shut it down" while marching on the MAX tracks. When protesters reached the Justice Center, they repeated, "No justice, no peace."

A man pulled a gun out near a group of six protesters close to the Justice Center, according to a Portland man in his 30s who said he was among the six protesters. The man with a gun, who was toting what appeared to be a video camera, told a reporter that he runs LaughingAtLiberals. The Oregonian/OregonLive couldn't immediately confirm the man's ties to the online outlet.

Michael Strickland pulls out a gun in the street during a protest in Portland, Ore., Thursday night, July 7, 2016. Strickland displayed the gun during an altercation at the Portland rally for the deaths of two black men shot by police in Minnesota and Louisiana. Nobody was injured in the incident and Strickland was arrested and has been charged with menacing and disorderly conduct. (AP Photo/Diego G Diaz)

The Portland man said that when the armed man was told he needed to go, the man "grabbed onto ... a sidearm in a aggressive manner." The Portland man said he did a sweeping push to get the man with the gun away from the crowd, touching him. Afterward, he said, the group tried to calm down the man with the gun.

The man with the gun was eventually taken into custody near the Multnomah County Courthouse.

Jessie Sponberg, a former Portland mayoral candidate, said he also tried to tried to get the man away from the crowd. Sponberg was later briefly detained by law enforcement officers who told him to get on the ground, he said later Thursday night. Sponberg said he complied and was handcuffed and searched before being released at the scene. Authorities also took down his information, he said.

Strickland, identified by police as the man who pulled the gun, has no prior convictions, according to court records. He told court authorities he was videotaping the protest and protesters went after him, according to court documents. He said he was self-employed and part of his income comes from filming controversial events, the documents said.

Two years after a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black man in Ferguson, Missouri -- sparking the "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" movement -- the number of deadly police shooting has grown. According to an analysis by The Washington Post, 491 people were killed by cops in the first half of the year, a 6 percent increase from the 465 recorded during the same six months of 2015.

The research also showed that more officers have been shot and killed in the line of duty. The number of cops being prosecuted over questionable shootings is also up.

President Barack Obama on Thursday called on American law enforcement to root out bias in its ranks. He said all Americans should be troubled by the frequent police shootings of blacks and Latinos and said they were symptomatic of a "broader set of racial disparities" in the justice system.

Portland's newly installed police chief addressed the Louisiana and Minnesota shootings in an internal message sent Thursday afternoon to bureau members.

"While these shootings occurred thousands of miles from Portland, we live in an age of constant media and social media dialogue that raises emotions in our own community," Chief Mike Marshman wrote. "Those emotions are a reality that we need to acknowledge and then continue to talk to people about what we are doing here in our community."

Marshman said he reached out to the city's black leaders Thursday "to let them know we understand the fear and anger these recent shootings and past shootings have raised."

The protest dissipated by about 12:30 a.m. Friday, when law enforcement officers in tactical gear left a Morrison Bridge on-ramp where they stopped marching protesters around 10:10 p.m. Thursday. Around three dozen protesters remained on the on-ramp around 12:30 a.m.

One hour before the downtown march started, some 200 people gathered at the basketball court on the southeast corner of Laurelhurst Park. Organizer Margaret Jacobsen asked for a moment of silence, then asked if anyone wanted to say a few words.

Portland resident Josh Boykin, 28, spoke up first.

He talked about his mother, and how they once thought the country had made great strides since the civil rights movement of the '60s. But that view has changed with each passing year of high-profile cases involving black men being killed by police.

"I can't fully comprehend what it's like to lose a child," he said, "for the reason that they were born the wrong color."

Police ask anyone who saw Strickland's alleged behavior or has photos or video footage of the incident to email CrimeTips@portlandoregon.gov.

Eder Campuzano of The Oregonian/OregonLive and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

-- Jim Ryan

jryan@oregonian.com

503-221-8005; @Jimryan015