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Portland man Fernando Garces, 25, was sentenced in federal court today for aiming a laser pointer at KGW news helicopter during a Nov. 9, 2016 protest.
Garces will serve two years of probation for pointing his "intense blue laser light" at the news helicopter while stuck in commute in his car on the Burnside Bridge during one of the first of a notorious string of protests following Donald Trump's election.
According to a release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Garces' beam illuminated the helicopter's cockpit as it hovered over the bridge to allow a KGW photographer to snap aerial images of the protest (which Portland police would later declare a riot).
"The light temporarily blinded both the pilot and the photographer," the release reads, adding that the pilot then attempted to steer the helicopter out of the line of the laser for "approximately one minute before [being] able to regain enough vision to safely fly the helicopter, read controls in the cockpit and take evasive action."
