Who owns the vehicles that provided riot gear to Antifa in Portland?

Peter Nathanael Hopkins, 36, of Portland, is the registered owner of a red 2015 Honda Fit with taped over Oregon plates that was allowed inside the Antifa autonomous zone at Southwest Naito Parkway and Salmon Street. Hundreds of Antifa, many who were openly armed with rifles and wearing military-style clothing, gathered on the morning of Aug. 22 in downtown Portland and later blocked off the road using barricades. Police stayed away. Hopkins’ vehicle was used to disperse a stockpile of riot shields. The driver was dressed in black bloc, covering his face with a black mask and sunglasses. Several Antifa militants, also in black bloc and holding an Antifa flag, stood around the vehicle to unload the riot gear and to block the front and back license plates using black umbrellas.

Hopkins’ social media profile is filled with far-left misinformation and anti-capitalism propaganda.

After Hopkins’ Honda Fit drove off, a second vehicle later pulled in to supply more riot gear. Walter Steven Behrnes, 44, of Portland, is the registered owner of the black 2015 BMW i3 Range Extender that had around a dozen black shields in the back. Behrnes is the senior 3D modeling technical director at LAIKA, a major animation studio near Portland famous for the 2009 blockbuster hit, “Coraline.” As with the earlier vehicle, masked Antifa militants in black uniforms used umbrellas to hide the license plates.

It is unclear if Behrnes was the masked driver of the BMW. Behrnes ignored inquiries from TPM and quickly removed his photo and LAIKA affiliation from his LinkedIn account after being contacted for comment. LAIKA was reached for comment but did not respond.

Antifa’s short-lived autonomous zone was protected by roving armed militants holding rifles and other weapons. They were also filmed assaulting people and the Portland Police have released photos of suspects.

Antifa’s violence wasn’t just contained to downtown that day. Dozens of Antifa militants drove 10 miles east to confront attendees of a right-wing patriotic-themed rally in a former Kmart parking lot. There, Antifa were confronted by the event’s volunteer security, which included Proud Boys members. The violence spilled into the road in the Parkrose neighborhood.

Antifa were filmed throwing multiple homemade explosives in front of a gasoline station and a female photographer was beaten by the group. During the left vs. right rioting, an Antifa support vehicle was smashed up. The heavily vandalized Antifa truck was a 2013 silver Honda Ridgeline. The truck is registered to Zachary Michael Stickney Danko, a Portland man active in the anarchist punk scene popular with Antifa. However, in 2019 he was a witness for the Portland Police Bureau in an officer-involved shooting death of a man. According to the police report, Danko had called the cops.

Antifa accounts on Twitter are raising money for Danko using CashApp and GoFundMe. The GoFundMe campaign for Danko urges anonymous donations. It raised over $3,000 to date. It is unknown how much was raised on CashApp.

CashApp is the preferred platform by Antifa for laundering and sending money because of its lax policy enforcement around extremist groups.

A decommissioned Metro West Ambulance driven and crashed by Antifa on Aug. 22 was also destroyed in the process of the riot.

Antifa supporters on social media had spread false claims the vehicle was randomly attacked by the right-wing security. In a statement to Reuters, Metro West said it doesn’t know how the protesters gained access to their decommissioned vehicle. The registration for the van still lists Metro West. On social media, Antifa accounts were fundraising for one of the people driving the van.

“For obvious reasons, funds will be raised through someone else’s cash links, and I am assisting with that,” tweeted an account belonging to Portland Antifa member Emily Ann Gansberg. Gansberg was arrested at a violent riot in July 2020 and still has ongoing charges related to the incident.

“Portland Antifa is fully organized and coordinated with combative supply drop offs,” journalist Drew Hernandez told TPM. Hernandez, an investigative reporter with conservative news site Real America’s Voice, recorded the undercover video showing the vehicles dropping off riot gear. “They’re removing license plates and attempting to cover them at political events. This is not an act of political activism—this is activity that you see criminal cartel and gangs use in order to avoid identification from law enforcement.” Hernandez has been threatened with violence since publishing the undercover videos on social media.

Reached for comment about the videos, the Portland Police Bureau declined to comment about potential crimes being committed.