Who is Aaron J Danielson? Police identify Portland shooting victim, friends say he was a 'free-loving American'
On Saturday, August 29, a man was shot and killed in downtown Portland after an evening of violent clashes between Trump supporters and protesters denouncing police brutality. Now, the police officials have confirmed the identity of the man as Aaron J Danielson from Portland.
The fatal shooting came after the 'Trump 2020 Cruise Rally in Portland' in which Trump's supporters gathered in cars and drove in a caravan into Portland. In a video footage that went viral, pickup trucks with American flags, "Thin Blue Line" flags, and Trump 2020 flags were seen. “Portland Police officers heard sounds of gunfire from the area of Southeast 3rd Avenue and Southwest Alder Street. They responded and located a victim with a gunshot wound to the chest. Medical responded and determined that the victim was deceased,” the Portland Police Bureau said in a statement.
Who was Aaron J Danielson?
Police said the 39-year-old Danielson died at the scene after he was shot on the chest. He was positively identified by the Multnomah County Medical Examiner's Office, the Portland Police Bureau announced in a statement. "(H)e had a huge heart," group organizer Joey Gibson said on his Facebook page. "God bless the life he lived."
OregonLive.com reported that organizers of the vehicle caravan called for its participants to leave the downtown Portland area at about 8 pm. It was less than an hour later that Danielson was shot and killed. The Portland Police Bureau has not officially identified a suspect or an arrest. According to a Fox 12 Oregon report, Danielson’s friends didn’t want to comment on the ongoing investigation but they believe that Portland police will do everything they can to get justice for their friend. His friends and family wanted everyone to know that Danielson was a good and decent man and they also wanted to set the record straight about the misinformation going around about him online. Luke Carrilo, who worked and lived with Danielson for 20 years, said that he has read several reports online, addressing Danielson as a radical racist and fascist. “He was not an inciter or an instigator, he was a free-loving American who died,” Carrillo said.
A GoFundMe page has been created to raise funds for Danielson. The page reads, "100% of the funds raised here will go towards legal/lawyer fees, and towards fulfilling all other incurred costs in this time of need for those that loved and supported Aaron in his life. GoFundMe has let us know that any money raised on a fraudulent fundraiser is safely held by their payment processor and will only be transferred to his business partner at the request of the family." Within 24 hours the page has raised more than $40,000 and over 1,000 people donated for the cause.