Dying For A Fight

Sean Kealiher was killed Oct. 12, 2019, near a popular bar for Portland’s anti-fascist scene. An SUV ran him over and crashed outside the Democratic Party of Oregon headquarters. Gunshots rang out through the night sky, and whoever was driving fled the scene, leaving the vehicle behind. Now, almost two years later, his mother Laura Kealiher is demanding police answer why his killing remains unsolved.

In this episode, we look at who was in the streets leading up to one of the most significant years in American protests, and what brought them there.

Oregon’s long history of racism was what brought Sean Kealiher and so many protesters like him to the streets. That history is part of the reason Laura Kealiher believes Portland police aren't solving her son's killing.

When Sean Kealiher and his friend Micah Fletcher began confronting racists in their community, neither one could have predicted the consequences.

After Sean Kealiher was killed, his mother Laura was subjected to brutal harassment from conservative trolls at her home and online—and it was Sean’s antifascist friends who provided her security, not the Portland police.

Ani Raven is a longtime activist and community radio host in Portland. She was also one of Sean Kealiher’s mentors when he joined the Occupy movement at 15 years old.

The uprising of Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 swept the country. As many as 1 in 10 adult Americans attended a protest. They got a taste of the world Sean Kealiher had been inhabiting for years before he was killed. And in Portland, the culture war over race and politics would turn deadly.

For the first time ever, two anti-fascists who were with Sean Kealiher the night of his homicide tell their side of the story.

A new witness comes forward who raises questions about why the killing of Sean Kealiher remains unsolved two years later.

Following massive protests in 2020 and an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, what has changed in how the country handles extremism?

Portland police announced Thursday they have made an arrest in the 2019 high-profile murder of a local anti-fascist. The case has drawn national attention in the years since, largely due to local activists’ insistence that police were not actively trying to find those involved in the murder of Sean Kealiher because of his political views.

Court documents released Friday state that Christopher Knipe, 47, allegedly confessed to police that he was driving a vehicle that killed Sean Kealiher in October 2019.

Portland police quickly obtained key evidence in the 2019 killing of anti-fascist Sean Kealiher, but waited more than two years to arrest the suspect, according to investigative file documents obtained by OPB.