‘Terrifying’: Portland protesters say federal authorities using unmarked minivans to remove them from streets

They appeared to be wearing patches on their arms identifying them as federal officers, but they were pulling protesters off the streets and into unmarked vehicles.

“I see guys in camo,” said protester Conner O’Shea to OPB. “Four or five of them pop out, open the door, and it was just like, ‘Oh, shit. I don’t know who you are or what you want with us.’”

O’Shea and his friend Mark Pettibone said they encountered a group of individuals Wednesday night who warned them that agents were dressed in camouflage and detaining others in their vans.

“So that was terrifying to hear,” Pettibone said.

O’Shea said he ran away after he witnessed individuals in camouflage exit from an unmarked vehicle and later hid after a second vehicle followed him. He filmed the incident and narrated the scene, providing the video to OPB.

“Feds are driving around grabbing people off the streets,” O’Shea said in the video, according to OPB. “I didn’t do anything f—ing wrong. I’m recording this. I had to let somebody know that this is what happens.”

However, Pettibone did not escape officers and said he was “basically tossed into the van” with a “beanie pulled over” his head. The agents then took him to a courthouse, where he was placed in a cell and read his Miranda rights there. He was released 90 minutes later after refusing to waive his rights to answer questions.

The Washington Examiner reached out to the Justice Department and Homeland Security Department for comment.

In a statement to OPB, the U.S. Marshals Service did not comment on using unmarked vehicles but said they did not arrest Pettibone.

“All United States Marshals Service arrestees have public records of arrest documenting their charges. Our agency did not arrest or detain Mark James Pettibone,” the statement reads.

Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf, who traveled to the city to meet with federal law enforcement officials, sent out a series of tweets Friday morning with photographs of police officers dressed in camouflage and graffiti on walls.

“Our men and women in uniform are patriots. We will never surrender to violent extremists on my watch,” he wrote. “Here is what I saw in Portland yesterday.”

“These valiant men and women have defended our institutions of justice against violent anarchists for 48 straight days. We will prevail,” his thread continued.