PORTLAND POLICE declare riot after protest against mayor turns violent.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Black Lives Matter protesters in Portland, Ore., shifted their focus to the city’s mayor, and police declared a riot as people broke windows, vandalized a business and set a small fire inside the upscale apartment building where Mayor Ted Wheeler lives.

The demonstration that began late Monday and ex- tended into Tuesday fell on Wheeler’s 58th birthday and featured shiny golden alphabet balloons that protesters used to spell out an expletive.

They sang on the street outside the mayor’s building, some wearing party hats, and the fire was set with a bundle of newspapers from a store on the ground floor of Wheeler’s building. There were no reports of major damage or injuries.

Wheeler, who is also police commissioner, has come under fire for his failure to bring the violence in Oregon’s largest city under control and for heading up a police force that has used tear gas multiple times against demonstrators.

A supporter of the rightwing group Patriot Prayer was killed Saturday during clashes between dueling demonstrators. A caravan of Trump supporters, estimated at about 600 cars, encountered Black Lives Matter protesters as they drove through the downtown and skirmishes broke out.

Police have not announced an arrest in the slaying of Aaron J. Danielson, 39, of Portland, Ore., and have said nothing about what led up the shooting.

Police Chief Chuck Lovell denounced the vandalism and said it was an escalation of previous protester actions.

“The families that live inside have done absolutely nothing to provoke a threat to their lives. As I’ve stated repeatedly, the nightly violence is coming at increased cost,” he said.

Lovell added: “This is impacting the safety of our entire city and urgent action is needed. Our elected officials need to do their part to draw a line in the sand and to hold people accountable. The violent behavior must end.”

Wheeler’s office said it would release a statement later Tuesday.

Protesters were angry Sunday when Wheeler held a news conference about the shooting and traded barbs with Trump, who was watching the conference live on TV and tweeted insults at Wheeler.

Many said afterward that they wanted to hear about solutions to the violence and how to keep the city’s Black residents safe. They complained that the mayor instead engaged in “political theater” with the president to raise his own profile.

Wheeler, the son of a wealthy timber scion, is seeking a second term against Sarah Iannarone, a candidate to the left of him who has marched repeatedly with protesters.

The situation grew more uncertain Monday, when two suburban counties and a nearby city refused to send deputies and officers to help the Portland police keep the peace. The Oregon State Police and sheriff’s deputies from Multnomah County — the county that includes Portland — are bolstering the city’s force.

But officials in Clackamas and Washington counties and the city of Gresham said they would not send law enforcement personnel to Portland.

Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, has so far declined to send the National Guard to Portland, as Trump has suggested.