A shooting that left June Knightly dead and five people wounded at a protest over police violence on Saturday night was triggered by a clash between an armed homeowner and armed demonstrators.
The shooting took place as people gathered in northeast Portland on Saturday to protest the death of Amir Locke, the 22-year-old fatally shot earlier this month by law enforcement in Minneapolis during a no-knock apartment raid.
Comrades who witnessed the event have stood strong against police cooperation.
Protesters at Normandale Park were getting ready to march when a Nazi who lives close by confronted them and later opened fire, striking multiple people. The Nazi shot five people before he forced to retreat by return fire. He was shot in the hip.
We take this moment to honor June Knightly who lost her life standing against the police and fascism.
She had spent the past few years volunteering as a “corker,” someone who helped temporarily block traffic to allow demonstrators to safely march down a street. On Saturday night, Knightly and other corkers were at Normandale Park in Northeast Portland to support a “Justice for Amir Locke” protest.
Knightly, who was 60 at the time of her death, did a lot of her corking work from the driver’s seat of her truck, because of a knee injury that forced her to walk with a cane. Knightly was scheduled to get a knee replacement later this year. It wasn’t the only ailment slowing her down. Knightly had been diagnosed with cancer twice, and had just been declared in remission by her doctor.
Knightly still came to protests while she was going through chemotherapy and losing her hair. This showed her commitment to activism through personal hardships.
Knightly served as board chair of the Lesbian Community Project, a now-defunct lesbian activism group in Portland. Along with her involvement in Portland’s queer community, Knightly spent time delivering warm meals to unhoused Portlanders and pitching in to help racial justice demonstrations after the 2020 murder of George Floyd sparked protests across the city.
“She was so fierce and so sweet at the same time,” her wife recalled. “I had never known anyone like her.”