A 22-year-old Portland protester with multiple facial tattoos did what anyone would do two hours after being released from prison – he was immediately arrested again.
Darby Marshall Howard told police officers that he was homeless and had arrived two weeks earlier in the city of Oregon besieged by protesters for much of last year.
On Thursday, Howard joined about 50 protesters at the Wells Fargo Center – the city’s tallest skyscraper – after they pushed the building inside and refused to leave, The Oregonian reported.
While inside, Howard allegedly punched a TV in the building’s lobby and kicked an automatic sliding door, causing more than $ 1,000 in damage, prosecutors told the newspaper.
When the police found him outside, Howard reportedly hit a police officer in the head and tried to get past a line of police to escape. He was arrested shortly after 3 pm and charged with criminal fraud, resistance to arrest and attempted assault on a police officer.
After booking, Howard was released on his own at around 8:30 pm.
It took just over two hours for him to return handcuffed.
Howard joined another protest, this one outside the federal court that was a focal point of the protests for much of last year. Federal authorities have broken down concrete fences and barriers that have surrounded the court since last summer, a move that activists apparently took as an invitation to resume the destruction of government property.
Howard was accused of hitting a Lime electric scooter against a building’s front glass window, breaking the glass. The vandalism was captured by security cameras, according to the Oregonian.
He was fined for destroying government property and a federal judge ordered his arrest.
When Howard was arrested a second time, he was still wearing the neon orange sneakers he had received at the town jail earlier in the day.