Portland State Students renew their support for #DisarmPSU with a rally in Pioneer Square



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Gathering of DisarmPSU at Pioneer Square on Sunday, July 1, 2018 – KATU photo of Keaton Thomas

Portland University students rally on Sunday to push the college to disarm the campus police security officers deadly shot on campus.

A person was shot dead by two campus security officers near the Broadway residence on Friday. Several friends identified the man at KATU News as being Jason Washington.

READ MORE: Friends say that a man killed by PSU campus police was a veteran, father and grandfather

the man was trying to break a fight when the gun in his belt holster fell to the ground. He says he tried to pick it up when the officers fired.

"All the testimonials say that he was trying to de-escalate the fight and that his gun had fallen and that it was an accident, nothing indicates that he did anything wrong". said Olivia Pace, a member of the Portland State Student Union.

PSU campus security began carrying weapons in July 2015. The students pushed against the new policy and protested the decision in 2015.

"This is exactly why we did not want that campus security is armed and when we discovered that it had fatal consequences, we were so disgusted and sad, "said Pace.

Students plan to meet at Pioneer Courthouse Square at 5 pm and possibly walk to the campus security office.

Here is a complete statement from Portland State University sent out just before Sunday's rally:

Portland State University supports the rights of individuals and groups to Organize and participate in peaceful protests UAP President, Rahmat Shoureshi, said Friday that he recognized that there were questions and concerns about fatal shootings involving officers, and that the university cooperated fully with the investigation of the Portland Police Bureau.

conduct a thorough internal evaluation and assessment of the incident as well as our policies and procedures.

This was the first shootings involving agents in the state of Portland

The UAP board of directors approved December 2014 to address security concerns and improve the safety of the university. Trained police officers were added to the campus Public Safety Office six months later.

A task force on the safety of administrators, professors, and students made this recommendation after months of study and comments from the public and the campus. The University of Oregon, Oregon State University and Oregon Health & Science University also have armed police.

Prior to 2015, PSU was the only public university in the United States with more than 15,000 students without sworn police.

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