The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office late Wednesday offered its first glimpse into Tuesday morning’s legal action at Portland’s “red house on Mississippi,” describing deputies breaking down fortifications, making arrests and finding weapons.
The deputies, with assistance from Portland Police Bureau officers, were accompanying contractors there to “re-secure” the property for its new owners.
The sheriff’s office acknowledged deputies needed to use force to enter the small, boarded-up house.
“Law enforcement has the authority to use reasonable force to serve a writ,” sheriff’s office communications director Chris Liedle said in an email to The Oregonian/OregonLive. “This includes forcing entry to a home or room that is locked or barricaded, which occurred [Tuesday]. The home was heavily fortified by the occupants inside.”
The action sparked dozens of protesters later in the day to descend on the scene and barricade streets around the property on North Mississippi Avenue in Portland. Police left the area after violent skirmishes erupted, and protesters have occupied and controlled the area since.
After police left, William Kinney III gave a tour to reporters late Tuesday afternoon. His childhood bedroom had been turned upside down by sheriff’s deputies, he claimed. He pointed to a closet door that had been ripped off its hinges.
“It’s devastating,” he said. “It’s almost like a dream. Like a nightmare.”
The doors and windows of house on Mississippi had been barricaded before sheriff's deputies arrived Tuesday morning. (Multnomah County Sheriff's Office)
Family members have said law enforcement rifled through their belongings in the house and destroyed items, such as a toilet.
Liedle, the sheriff’s office spokesman, said that after deputies forced entry to the house Tuesday morning, “[c]ontractors hired on behalf of the property owner altered and removed items inside the home and on the property and secured fencing around the property.”
Deputies serving the writ arrested five men, including Kinney, and a 16-year-old who were inside the house at the time.
The “Writ of Execution of Judgment of Restitution,” issued by a judge in September, directed the sheriff to turn the house over to its rightful owner, Urban Housing Development Ltd. The Black-Indigenous Kinney family lost the house to foreclosure in 2018 but had remained living there until recently.
Social-justice activists and some Kinney family members began camping on the property in September.
Kinney, who now goes by the name William X. Nietzche, said his wedding ring -- and possibly his fingers too -- were broken during his arrest.
The doors and windows of house on Mississippi had been barricaded before sheriff's deputies arrived Tuesday morning. (Multnomah County Sheriff's Office)
The sheriff’s office said deputies faced a potentially dangerous situation at the house, even before a wave of protesters arrived at the property.
“Deputies recovered two handguns in the home, as well as 250 rounds of ammunition, two cans of bear spray, multiple sets of body armor and ballistic vests and helmets, and other equipment such as two-way radios,” Liedle said. “Deputies were on scene for an estimated three hours until contractors hired on behalf of the property owner performed the work they needed to do.”
The foreclosure on the house resulted from a new mortgage Kinney’s parents reportedly took out to pay legal fees when Kinney faced charges after his car slammed into another vehicle in 2002. Kinney, then 17, pleaded guilty to felony hit-and-run, third-degree assault and the juvenile equivalent of criminally negligent homicide.
Activists, who view the foreclosure as a symbol of systemic racism and entrenched inequality, continue their occupation of more than two blocks around the house -- from North Skidmore to Blandena streets, along North Mississippi and Albina avenues. The barricades include makeshift tire spikes, and groups of black-clad guards posted at each intersection.
-- Douglas Perry
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