Protester confronts Mayor Ted Wheeler at NW Portland sushi restaurant

Ted Wheeler

Mayor Ted Wheeler was confronted by a protester while dining in Northwest Portland.Brooke Herbert/The Oregonian

A protester confronted Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler while he was eating dinner at a Northwest Portland sushi restaurant Tuesday evening, according to video footage posted on social media.

A live-streamer posted around 7 p.m. that Wheeler was at the Bamboo Sushi restaurant on Northwest 23rd Avenue. A video posted to Twitter later in the evening shows someone inside the restaurant shouting at the mayor about the Portland Police Bureau’s use of tear gas on protesters.

Wheeler, who was with a family member, is the police commissioner.

“You gas children in their home,” the protester said, as several restaurant employees surrounded the person and tried to usher them out of the restaurant.

“That’s not true,” Wheeler said. “You need to leave and you need to stop.”

Restaurant employees then led the protester out of the restaurant. The person cursed at Wheeler before leaving.

Wheeler’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the encounter.

The incident is one of several over the past few months where Wheeler has been confronted while dining out.

In January, Wheeler was eating dinner at Café Nell when a group gathered and shouted obscenities from outside the tent where he was sitting. According to a spokesperson from Wheeler’s office, the hecklers pushed past restaurant employees. At one point, Wheeler’s spokesperson said, one member of the group started swatting and made physical contact with Wheeler.

Later in January, Wheeler and former mayor Sam Adams, now a part of Wheeler’s staff, were leaving a Southwest Portland pub when Portland lawyer and heir to Alpenrose Dairy Cary Cadonau accosted him, unmasked, and started filming Wheeler with his phone. He accused Wheeler of dining without a mask. Wheeler said he had been in a covered outdoor area where masks were not required. Cadonau followed Wheeler back to his car, and Wheeler then pepper-sprayed him in the face. The mayor then tossed him a bottle of water. Cadonau later apologized for the incident.

—The Oregonian/OregonLive

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