Portland man recovering from beating after armed standoff amid protest

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A Portland handyman remains hospitalized from injuries sustained when he was beaten by a crowd of demonstrators amid an armed standoff with the protest’s self-appointed “security.”

Portland Police are trying to sort out exactly what happened Thursday afternoon that ended up sending Joseph Hall, 53, to the hospital.

Hall told the Oregonian he strayed into the “Justice for Patrick Kimmons” march, held weekly to protest the 2018 shooting death of a 27-year-old Black man, as it was making its way down the street in the North Portland neighborhood. He said he was headed home from a repair job at a nearby apartment complex when he swerved onto the street to avoid a moped that cut him off, then saw the moped following him, and a man screaming on a handheld radio to stop his red pickup truck.

Soon another vehicle blocked his truck, “and all of a sudden I have three or four people around me” with what to him looked like AR-15s, he told the paper. He claimed he was unaware of the march.

He said he grabbed a nonlethal handgun that shoots hard pellets to try to get the people, who were calling him a Nazi, to clear out of his way, calling him a “Nazi.”

“They’re screaming and yelling at me, claiming I was out there trying to run people over. That’s when I discovered a march was going on,” Hall told the paper. ”I was trapped. A vehicle in front of me trapped me in. I couldn’t go forward or around.”

In a video since removed from social media, The Oregonian reported that Hall could be seen standing outside the driver’s seat of his truck, door open, with the gun in his outstretched hand as a man on the street points a rifle at him. The video showed Hall confronting the demonstrators, one of whom pushed him down and a melee ensued.

Hall claimed the gun he had in his hand and several others from his truck were stolen as he was tackled, punched and kicked. He’s being treated for a dislocated shoulder, broken clavicle and five broken ribs.

“We Out Here Magazine” accused Hall of deciding to “run his truck through” the weekly protest in a tweet, and claimed that “he was disarmed by volunteer security.” The video the publication linked to was removed.

Portland police said in a statement that other drivers had complained about the crowd blocking the streets. “One person said people in the crowd broke out their vehicle windows, damaged tires, and sprayed them with some kind of irritant,” the statement said.

Cops are trying to collect videos and witness statements about the incident.

“All I wanted to do is leave,” said Hall, who has faced threats on social media. “I work with all race, creed, color, everybody. I will not sit back and let anybody that’s out there on social media call me anything other than what I really am. I’m a human being. My life was threatened.”

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