Alleged killer in Normandale Park protest shooting identified as Benjamin Smith

The man suspected of shooting and killing a racial justice demonstrator Saturday night has been identified as Benjamin Jeffrey Smith, 43, of Northeast Portland.

Smith’s identity was first reported by antifascist researchers and the Oregonian/OregonLive. Smith’s roommate and neighbors said he had grown increasingly angry with protests in the neighborhood and across the city, as well as the unhoused community who camp in the area.

Smith’s roommate, Kristine Christenson told OPB when she first moved into his apartment seven years ago, he let her stay there for free.

“When I first moved in, he seemed fine,” she said. “He was actually not that bad of a guy.”

She said Smith slowly became more radicalized starting in the later years of the Obama administration and accelerating during the Trump administration. At times, she heard him yelling racial slurs in his room and deriding women.

“As the years went on, he’s just gotten more and more radicalized. He got angrier and angrier,” Christenson told OPB. “I have not been comfortable living with him for a while. I did not feel safe with him, especially this last two years with the whole COVID thing. I think that made him even more angry.”

Demonstrators said on Saturday night the shooting happened after Smith allegedly started yelling at a group of racial justice protesters holding a “justice for Amir Locke” demonstration at Normandale Park. Locke was killed by Minneapolis police serving a no-knock warrant earlier this month.

Witnesses to the Saturday shooting said people attempted to deescalate the situation when Smith pulled out a handgun and fired into the crowd, killing June Knightly, 60, and injuring four others. Witnesses said a protester returned fire, hitting Smith, who is in critical condition according to the Oregonian/OregonLive.

Knightly became involved with the protest movement after a George Floyd march passed by her home in 2020. Since then, she had attended many demonstrations and often worked to protect protesters from traffic and other interference, a job she was also doing on Saturday when she was killed.

Christenson, who said she and her neighbors are shocked but not surprised by what happened, said Portland Police Bureau detectives and special agents with the FBI came to her apartment just after midnight early Sunday morning to ask her about Smith, including whether or not he owned any firearms.

Late Monday night, Portland police officers returned to the apartment with a search warrant looking for guns and computers, Christenson said.

She didn’t know how many guns Smith owned, but said he owned everything from shotguns to rifles and handguns, and that Smith sometimes repaired weapons for other people.

“He talked about wanting to go shoot commies and antifa all the friggin time,” Christenson said. “He was just a sad angry dude…he talked about wanting to do this for a while. He was angry at the mask mandates, he was angry at the damned liberals.”

Smith’s brother, Aurthur Killion, said Smith had had issues with protesters in the neighborhood but otherwise seemed fine when they last spoke a week ago. Killion, who learned about the shooting and his brother’s involvement when a reporter contacted him, said he hasn’t been able to find out any more details.

“I’ve called every hospital there and all of them say he’s not a patient,” Killion said. “I’ve called both the detectives that were listed on one of the articles I read and neither of them would answer their phone. I called the detective branch itself and got a recorded message and that was it. Your police department in Portland sucks.”

In a press release Sunday afternoon, the Portland Police Bureau described the incident as very complicated and said “investigators are trying to put this puzzle together without having all the pieces.” The bureau asked anyone with information to contact detectives.