Portland Police arrested a University of Oregon student for arson Monday after protesters set fire to the Portland police union building, according to Portland police, causing $25,000 in damages during a protest that police later declared a riot.
Alma Raven-Guido was charged with second-degree arson, first-degree criminal mischief and two counts of riot in Multnomah County Circuit Court after police found her in possession of “multiple lighters and three plastic bottles that contained what appeared to be an accelerant,” according to a probable cause affidavit. The 19-year-old student told police she was a journalism student attending UO, according to court documents. The Emerald was able to corroborate this claim using a student directory recently obtained via a public records request.
Portland police identified Raven-Guido after an informant observed her pouring the accelerant on the fire and reported her description to police, according to the affidavit. One of the riot charges stems from Raven-Guido’s involvement in an Aug. 25 protest that police declared a riot after some members of the crowd breached the temporarily shuttered Portland City Hall, according to the court documents. She was arrested following that protest and released without bail, and the Multnomah County District Attorney did not press charges at the time.
Protesters gathered Monday night in response to a White police officer, Kim Potter, shooting and killing Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on Sunday. Police arrested Potter — who was the president of the police union for Brooklyn Center — Wednesday for second-degree manslaughter after she claimed the shooting was an accident, and that she meant to pull her taser, not her gun, during the routine traffic stop.
Demonstrators met at Kenton Park and marched toward the Portland Police Association building, with members — dressed in what police called “‘Black boc (sic)’” clothing to obscure their identity” — communicated by radio, used shields, threw projectiles at police and launched fireworks toward airplanes flying overhead, according to the affidavit.
Upon arrival, demonstrators vandalized the building and set a trash can with burning materials against the building, the court filing says. After the fire was extinguished, the group returned following warnings from police and set burning materials against the door, causing a large fire on the building’s exterior.
Following the large fire, the informant told police that they saw Raven-Guido pour a flammable liquid on the building from three plastic bottles, according to the court filing, and police arrested her when police moved the crowd away from the building.