PENDLETON — Jacob Bryant just wanted to chat — peacefully, and quietly, with someone associated with the Pendleton Black Lives Matter protest.

So, shortly before 9 p.m., nearly five hours into the simultaneous protests that occurred on opposite sides of the 1200 block of Southwest Court Avenue, the lifelong Pendleton resident crossed the street and engaged a couple of individuals associated with the BLM protest.

“We agree on quite a few things,” he said. “I just introduced myself and told them the people that are out here yelling and saying horrible things, I just want to let them know that they’re not the majority. They’re a small few. Just like there’s a small few on your guys’ side.”

Bryant had spent much of Saturday, Aug. 29, sitting with counterprotesters in the parking lot on the north side of Dave’s Chevron enjoying the evening. He said he arrived early to sign a petition, and then spent much of his night hanging out, listening to the yelling back and forth.

“That’s before, like all the crazy started happening, everyone was just hanging out and sitting on the tailgate of the truck, you know, their flag, just hanging out,” he said.

Bryant said he briefly left the counterprotest parking lot to run an errand. Once he returned, he said the mood had changed on both sides of the street.

“That’s when the yelling started happening. Both sides, both sides saying horrible things,” he said. “But it’s not OK. There’s always radicals on every thought, religion, everything. It just started getting crazy around sunset.”

As the yelling and provoking became more intense throughout the night, Bryant said he — at one point — flashed the peace sign to the BLM protesters. His gesture was returned with a shout from a BLM protester, Bryant said, of, “You should be over here.”

So he crossed the street to have a conversation.

“I walked over here and I didn’t know what was going to happen. I walked to the police officer, and he was like, ‘Hey, hold on, I’ll go ask.’ (They) came over to talk to me and were super nice people. We don’t agree on everything, but, you know, that’s why this country is so great. It shows everybody can have their own opinion. You just can’t infringe on somebody else’s.”

Bryant said he attended the protest because he “wanted to see what was going on.”

“You see this kind of stuff on the internet and TV, so I wanted to come down and check out what was going on. You see people, certain places on fire and stuff like that,” he said. “And I don’t want that kind of stuff to happen, you know?”