A 22-year-old protester from Portland with multiple facial tattoos did what everyone would do two hours after he was released from prison: he was promptly re-arrested.
Darby Marshall Howard told police he was homeless and had arrived two weeks earlier in the Oregon town that had been besieged by protesters for most of the past year.
On Thursday, Howard joined about 50 protesters at the Wells Fargo Center – the city’s tallest skyscraper – after they pushed into the building and refused to leave, The Oregonian reported.
While inside, Howard reportedly hit a TV in the building’s lobby and kicked an automatic sliding door, causing more than $ 1,000 in damage, prosecutors told the paper.
When police found him outside, Howard reportedly punched an officer in the head and tried to push through a line of officers to get away. He was arrested shortly after 3 p.m. and charged with criminal mischief, resisting arrest and attempted sexual assault on an officer.
After booking, Howard was released on his own at around 8:30 PM
It took a little over two hours for him to be handcuffed again.
Howard joined another protest, this one outside the federal courthouse that was a big part of the protests last year. Federal officials had been tearing down fences and concrete barriers surrounding the courthouse since last summer, a move that activists apparently viewed as an invitation to resume destruction of government properties.
Howard was accused of smashing an electric Lime scooter against a building’s windshield and shattering the glass. According to the Oregonian, the vandalism was caught on security cameras.
He was charged with destruction of government property, and a federal judge ordered his detention.
When he was arrested a second time, Howard was still wearing the bright neon orange sneakers he’d been given in the city jail earlier in the day.