In an exclusive interview with PJ Media, a black resident of downtown Portland gave an account of the deadly shooting on Saturday. He says the shooting of Jay Bishop, a member of Patriot Prayer, was not provoked by the pro-Trump rally—it happened two hours after the rally dispersed.
Gabe Johnson, who made national headlines in July for bringing an American flag to the riots in front of the Justice Center in downtown Portland, told PJ Media the shooting in Portland Saturday happened four blocks from his apartment building.
“I get done watching the Trump rally… and I made note of the time because you know, it seems like everything right now is under a microscope,” recalled Johnson. “And now the time that this rally ended was right around eight o’clock. KGW and LOIN TV went off the air. KATU their livestream went off the air about an hour and a half after the rally had gone through Portland.”
A short time later he heard gunfire near his home. A friend with Portland Police Bureau texted Johnson about the incident, so he decided to go out and see for himself what happened.
“I’ve been chatting with one of my buddies from DHS and PPD,” Johnson told PJ Media, “and they’re like, man, some guy got shot four blocks from your house. Immediately I’m thinking there’s no way that this is going to get a fair shake. I gotta go down for myself to see what’s really going on. I got to talk to people that are there because immediately what you see in the news is not what happened. I spent about two hours out [Saturday] night just trying to get as much information as I could.”
Johnson said he was disgusted by the reaction he saw from rioters. “The people were just elated and I saw that there were celebrating it,” he said. “It was disgusting. What they just displayed makes me rethink my personal values and who I align with, my [Democratic] political affiliation, because that’s not me, man. That’s not me and that’s not a lot of people. You can’t just blatantly label this man a fascist and Nazi and ‘he deserved to die’ bulls***.”
“But yeah, it’s the Trump rally that made this happen,” he said sarcastically.
Black Portlander Changes His Mind About the Nightly Protests After He Attends One
“But what I think they wanted,” Johnson said, “They’d rather have a black man dead in the street. They didn’t get what they wanted, but it’s pretty damn close and it’s sickening. The first thing you saw when the social media went on fire with their reports, was a black man shot by a Trump supporter at a rally. So before there was even any verifying of facts, they run with this narrative. They wanted so bad for that to be the case.”
Bishop’s business partner has released a video interview in which he gives his account of the incident that took the life of his friend:
INSANE: Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler Blames Trump for Deadly Shooting
The saddest thing is that the antifa mob may have gotten the wrong man. According to multiple accounts, there were several sightings of Joey Gibson, the leader of Patriot Prayer. The mob ended up cornering him in a gas station and attempting to lock it shut and set it on fire. This all happened around the same time that the antifa mob targeted Bishop for execution.
Responding to the Sunday press conference by Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, Johnson scoffed at the notion of Trump bearing responsibility. “What it has to do with,” he said, “is that antifa and BLM in Portland can’t give the same respect to a peaceful protest if they don’t agree with it, and so they’re not allowing others to use their First Amendment rights. We want our rights, but we’re going to deny you yours. And that’s exactly what it is, and people shouldn’t… be afraid to say it because everybody sees it.”
As for Johnson, a lifelong Democrat, he says he’s changing his voter registration as soon as possible. “My family, myself, we’re lifelong Democrats, right? And if everything I have seen already hasn’t made me question, you know, is this the same party that I grew up with? Definitely it’s not and, you know, I’m going to go change my voter registration tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, a lot of his neighbors are feeling the same way. Johnson says ten people have moved out of his building this month, and everyone he talks to is fed up.
Portlanders have a rude awakening coming. The city continues its rot unabated, and residents continue to flee.
NOTE: Jay Bishop was a pseudonym. The man’s real name Aaron “Jay” Danielson. His friends have set up a GoFundMe account to help his family and his business partner.
Jeff Reynolds is the author of the book, “Behind the Curtain: Inside the Network of Progressive Billionaires and Their Campaign to Undermine Democracy,” available at www.WhoOwnsTheDems.com. Jeff hosts a podcast at anchor.fm/BehindTheCurtain. You can follow him on Twitter @ChargerJeff, and on Parler at @RealJeffReynolds.
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