Portland police say guns at the top of a garage have been unloaded and belong to a "mining team" right

Yesterday afternoon, the mayor of the city, Ted Wheeler, announced that the police had discovered a "cache of firearms" above the garage, causing a shockwave through the city. At present, the police are minimizing the incident, claiming that she found only three rifles, unloaded and still in crates.

The new details seem to be an attempt to explain why Wheeler was not informed about guns for three months.

The police bureau statement corrects Deputy Chief Ryan Lee's previous statements at a press conference on Oct. 15, claiming that police had seized the demonstrators' weapons and "redirected" them from the garage.

Officers noticed four people standing in the northeast corner of the top floor of the garage. They had three rifles that they were allowed to carry because of their concealed driver's license. The rifles were in crates and were not loaded, the police said now.

"The men told the sergeant that they were going to stay in the garage and set up a quick extraction team in case one of their group members was injured during the demonstration," the official said. Police spokesman, Sgt. Chris Burley said in a statement.

The officers ordered the men to store the weapons in a locked storage case on the back of their van and to keep ammunition for rifles in another part of the truck. The men were allowed to stay on the top floor of the parking structure.

"After further examination, it was determined that no firearms had been seized or kept in a safe place by the people in the parking garage, as the police did not have a firearm. the legal authority to do it, "the statement said. "No arrests were made, no law was broken, and the Portland police continued to monitor the individuals for some time during this event."

In the same parking structure, the police also approached between 20 and 30 protesters who parked their cars in a garage located in the city center. Protesters donned quilted clothing, helmets and collected weapons, including makeshift sticks and signs. The officers reminded the demonstrators that weapons were prohibited in Tom McCall Waterfront Park, where the patriot's prayer was to take place.

"The police watched them drop things into their vehicles that could be used as makeshift sticks and billboards with sticks, some of them kept these objects and said that they do not belong to them. would not enter the park, "said police spokesman Christopher Burley said.

These new details raise even more questions about Mayor Ted Wheeler's new proposal to extend police powers to police protests. The incident on the roof was cited in the proposed order as an example of "type of escalation, injury and property damage". But at the time, the police thought the incident was so minor that she did not even write a report about this meeting.

Portland police have expressed concern that protest groups will become more violent, although they have finally decided that the men in the garage pose no risk to public safety.