The Portland mayor tells police he sprayed pepper spray on a man who harassed him over mask policy

The Portland mayor tells police he sprayed pepper spray on a man who harassed him over mask policy

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“He had no face mask and got a foot or two from my face while picking me up,” Wheeler said in a voluntary statement to the Portland Police Department.

Police do not know the identity of the man who was sprayed and have so far received no complaints. Asked about the rumored incident during a news conference Monday, Wheeler said: “I can tell you there was an incident, I submitted a police report and that’s all I can tell you now.”

The mayor’s office told CNN Monday night that Wheeler made no further comments.

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In the statement to police, Wheeler said he was approached outside the Hillsdale McMenamin pub on Sunday by a man he did not recognize. The man said he photographed the mayor while in the tent of the restaurant, and accused the mayor of being in the restaurant without a mask against the policies of Covid-19, Wheeler said in the statement. .

The man apparently picked him up with a cell phone, Wheeler said, adding that he told the man that people may temporarily remove a mask for eating and drinking at a restaurant, the statement said.

Wheeler said the man followed him to his car.

“I immediately became concerned about my personal safety since I was recently physically physically in a similar situation,” Wheeler said. The mayor says he first gave a verbal warning that he was willing to use the pepper spray, and then sprayed the man in the eyes.

Wheeler was confronted in a restaurant earlier this month by a group of people shouting obscenities and “one member of the group started swinging at the mayor and making physical contact with him.”

According to the police report, Wheeler was at the time with former Portland Mayor Sam Adams, who confirmed the incident to an officer. Adams did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Adams attempted to record the encounter, but was only able to record the sound, which is consistent with Wheeler and Adam’s story, the police report said.

Wheeler and Adams both say Wheeler threw a water bottle at the man so he could wash his eyes out, but did not stay on the scene. A mayor’s staff called police shortly afterwards to begin the report.

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