U.S. senator calls for federal investigation into beating near Portland protests

By Andrew Hay

(Reuters) - A top U.S. lawmaker on Tuesday called for the Department of Justice to prosecute a group of people caught on videotape beating and kicking a man who crashed his truck near Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, Oregon.

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham urged the department to probe the case as Portland police identified a 25-year-old man suspected of taking part in the Sunday night attack and asked him to surrender.

"This shocking attack by a mob against a young man in the streets of Portland is beyond the pale," Graham, an ally of U.S. president Donald Trump, said in a written statement.

The beating comes during rising tensions between left and right wing protesters. Demonstrations have roiled part of downtown Portland each night for nearly three months following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in police custody.

Police said they were seeking 25-year-old Marquis Love in connection with the attack.

Video footage of the incident shows a group of people pulling a young man from his truck, which had crashed near Black Lives Matter protests near the federal courthouse in downtown Portland. He was later identified by family members as Adam Haner.

Protesters chased Haner's Ford pick up before it crashed and dragged him out of the vehicle, with around 10 people beating him, police said.

The attackers are seen kicking, punching and pushing Haner as he collapses to the ground, his head bleeding. Haner was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and has since been released, police said.

"Adam was trying to help someone and was then attacked," Brian Haner said on a crowdfunding page he set up for his younger brother which has raised over $65,000. "He would give the shirt off his back to help any of the people around him, and he really didn't deserve what happened to him."

(Reporting by Andrew Hay and Dan Whitcomb; editing by Bill Tarrant and Richard Pullin)