Skip to main content
Portland activist and 2016 mayoral candidate Jessie Sponberg has released a video claiming he was the person who knocked a street preacher unconscious at Portland International Airport on Sunday.
Sponberg says he was at the airport acting as a journalist, covering a protest against President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration, when he decided that counter-protesters were getting out of hand. He says he then punched one of them, Grant Chisholm, a member of a group that calls itself the "Bible Believers."
Chisholm was released from the hospital on Tuesday. He told WW that he felt threatened by the attack.
“I believe I was hit with something metal, so it kind of jiggled some brain cells and I got vertigo and I’m trying to get clarity,” he said.
Here's Sponberg's video (it's about six minutes long).
Sponberg says he plans to turn himself in the Portland Police Bureau this morning.
"They are violent bullies who had gone too far with nobody else stopping them from creating another violent situation," Sponberg says. "Either way, I'm going to need a good lawyer."
Updated at 10:40 am
Sponberg says in an interview he plans to turn himself in late Thursday afternoon.
“I think I’m going to do it around 5 pm,” Sponberg says. “I want to tie up some loose ends first. I haven’t settled on an attorney yet.”
He says he prefers to surrender on his own terms with a lawyer present.
“Right now I’m hiding out,” he says. “My neck is still messed up from getting thrown down on the steps at City Hall, so I want to avoid a confrontational arrest.”