The Portland protesters so far were peaceful, with demonstrators chanting “take it to the streets!”

But on Saturday afternoon a rally by a small group of alt-right demonstrators quickly devolved as they traded paintballs and pepper spray with counter-protesters.

About 30 people were participating in the Patriot Prayer rally in front of the Multnomah County Justice Center in Oregon’s biggest city. Several were armed with automatic weapons, KOIN-TV reported.

The group clashed with counter-protesters through downtown streets, and some counter-protesters blocked the exit of a garage where several Patriot Prayer members had parked.

A KOIN photojournalist reported hearing at least two gunshots at the garage.

In an emailed statement Saturday, Portland Police Sgt. Kevin Allen said the bureau was not aware of evidence that there was gunfire, AP reported.

Earlier in the day, police said they made four arrests overnight as they dispersed a protest that was headed toward the offices of the police union.

The bureau declared the demonstration of a couple of hundred people an unlawful assembly Friday night, saying people were throwing fireworks, golf balls, and chunks of concrete at officers. Officers said they used crowd-control munitions but no CS tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Demonstrations, often violent, have happened nightly in Portland for more than two months following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. Participants have repeatedly broken into the offices of the Portland Police Association, vandalized them, and set fires.

On Thursday night, a Black Lives Matter demonstration took place in the Washington, DC, neighborhood of Adams-Morgan, outside of the Third District police station.

Protesters told WJLA-TV, an ABC-affiliated TV station in the US capital that they were “marching to let people know they are still here”, Sputnik reported.

The police stressed that “there is a difference between peaceful protestors & individuals destroying property or setting fires,” insisting they have made arrests “only of those that were engaged” in the rioting activity.

ABC’ affiliate in Washington, WJLA-TV, reported that protesters, affiliated to the Black Lives Matter movement, were “marching to let people know they are still here”, before police surrounded them in DC’s Adams Morgan neighborhood and made the arrest. Witnesses told the station protesters were pepper-sprayed by the law enforcement agents.

The DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department said in a statement on Twitter Friday that its crews handled “several outside fires that were set” by demonstrators on Thursday night. The department said, “There were no structural fires”.

“#DCsBravest worked closely with our partners at @DCPoliceDept to extinguish several outside fires that were set. 2 engine companies and a battalion chief handled these incidents. There were no structural fires,” the DC Fire and EMS tweeted.

WTOP reported that protesters surrounded at least one police officer during the demonstration.

In late-May, the death of an African American man, George Floyd, at the hands of Minneapolis officers triggered nationwide anti-police brutality and anti-racism protests all across the United States that sometimes turned into violent clashes between law enforcement officers and protesters, seeing acts of vandalism and looting.