Larry McFarland Arrested in Oregon After Firing Shotgun Above 'Defund the Police' Protesters

An Oregon man was arrested Thursday after he fired a shotgun round above the heads of "defund the police" protesters outside the Salem Police station, where officers were closely monitoring both sides of the confrontation.

Salem law enforcement officials say Larry McFarland, 75, drove his vehicle up to the sidewalk outside the local police station Thursday around 9 p.m., where about 20 "defund the police" protesters had gathered. Cell phone video from the incident showed McFarland questioning what the protesters were doing before he fired a shotgun round into the air and warned them he'll "kill" anybody who disobeys his orders.

But officers watching the "police abolishment" protest from afar witnessed the confrontation and immediately sought to disarm McFarland, of Keizer, Oregon.

"Which one of you f***ers was doing it?" McFarland can be heard asking in cell phone video of the Thursday night incident.

"It wasn't any of these ones," a protester replies. "Get the f***ing cops out here."

"Well," McFarland responded, aiming his shotgun into the sky and firing a round. "This thing is loaded and it's going to kill whoever f***ing-" he continued, just as monitoring officers inside the Salem Police Department can be heard demanding that he drop the weapon.

"No," McFarland replied, before calmly walking back to his vehicle.

Salem police as well as several of the attending protesters noted on social media that they were outside the station to protest last month's Chicago shooting death of 13-year-old Adam Toledo. The unarmed boy was gunned down police officers and video released Thursday showed him holding his hands in the air at the time of the shooting.

The Oregon "defund the police" protesters were chalking the sidewalk outside the Salem police station when McFarland arrived and threatened their presence.

"As these protests have become a regular occurrence in recent weeks, officers were monitoring the protest from a distance, so as not to incite the demonstration further," the Salem Police Department wrote in a statement released Friday.

"When officers saw McFarland, they called for more units and yelled for him to drop the weapon. He refused, got into his truck and left the area. Responding officers located McFarland a few blocks north of the police station and conducted a high-risk traffic stop. He was taken into custody and returned to the police station where detectives had been called in to assist with the investigation," Salem police added.

McFarland was arrested and charged with two counts of menacing and unlawful use of a weapon with a firearm. The 75-year-old was held at the Marion County Correction Facility and was scheduled for arraignment at 2:30 p.m. Friday.

Newsweek reached out to local police for any additional details about the incident Saturday morning.

The incident in Salem comes as multiple gunshots and fires were tied to protesters in nearby Portland, Oregon's largest city, where demonstrations have been occurring almost daily in the nearly one year since the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.