Protester Who Suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury From a Flash-Bang Grenade Intends to Sue the Portland Police

A Portland protester named Aaron Anthony Cantu says he was running away from police when he was struck in the back of the head with an explosive device that penetrated the bike helmet he was wearing.

In a tort claim filed with the City of Portland on Sept. 19, Cantu's lawyers say he was standing between SW 1st Avenue and Naito Parkway on SW Columbia Street when police began firing flash-bang munitions at counter-protesters who had gathered to oppose a Patriot Prayer rally on August. 4, 2018.

Cantu's tort claim, which is a formal notice of his intent to sue the city, says he did not hear dispersal orders that were given at the intersection of Naito Parkway and SW Columbia Street. He did not see any signs of violence or projectiles thrown by the protesters. Video footage has not confirmed police claims that protesters threw objects at officers before the first flash-bang was shot into the crowd.

Cantu ran toward SW 1st Avenue after the first explosion. The claim says Cantu heard three more loud booms before he was struck in the head.

He fled through an intersection that was open to traffic and tried to get treatment from a street medic at a bus stop, but police continued to use riot control devices on the crowd and Cantu had to move again. At a hospital, doctors put a tube in his head to drain blood that was pooling from a hemorrhage caused by the explosion.

The claim alleges that Portland police have engaged in a pattern of deploying unreasonable force against left-wing protesters, and highlights Aug. 4 as one of the worst examples the city has seen.
"The Portland community has been subject to this treatment—nearly exclusively on left-wing protesters—by the Portland Police at protests before," the claim says. "However, on August 4, 2018, the Police's willingness to use so much lethal force on fleeing protesters represents a new low that needs to be addressed."

Cantu's tort claim is at least the second to be filed after the Aug. 4 protest. Another protester, Michelle Fawcett, filed a tort claim against the city on Sept. 13 after being hit in the arm and chest with a flash band that gave her third-degree chemical burns. (Willamette Week, September 19, 2018)
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