Suspect in Portland protester’s killing dies in hail of gunfire
Bystanders duck for cover as task force fires dozens of times
LACEY, Wash. — A man who said he believed a civil war was coming to America and was suspected of killing a right-wing protester in Portland, Ore., died in a hail of gunfire in neighboring Washington state, officials and witnesses said.
The killing of Michael Forest Reinoehl shook a quiet suburb of Olympia on Thursday evening — with bystanders ducking for cover behind automobiles from dozens of gunshots as four agents serving on a U.S. Marshals Service task force opened fire at Reinoehl.
Authorities said Reinoehl, 48, was armed with a semi-automatic handgun. A witness who was driving to the small apartment complex that Reinoehl was leaving said she saw him open fire from a car and the officers return fire.
Reinoehl then got out of the car and started running away but collapsed amid more gunfire, the witness, Deshirlynn Chatman, told the Olympian newspaper.
“He did open fire first,” she said in a video posted by the Olympian. Lt. Ray Brady of the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department said investigators have not concluded whether Rienoehl fired any shots.
Another video that was shot during the immediate aftermath showed Reinoehl lying motionless on the street, with law enforcement officers in tactical gear and automatic rifles milling around. After several minutes, one man performed chest compressions on Reinoehl.
In a videotaped interview broadcast the evening of his death by Vice News, Reinoehl came close to admitting that he shot Aaron “Jay” Danielson, a supporter of a right-wing group called Patriot Prayer, on Aug. 29 after a caravan of backers of President Donald Trump drove their pickups through downtown Portland.
Reinoehl said he “had no choice” but to do what he did because he thought he and a friend were about to be stabbed.
“I hate to say it, but I see a civil war right around the corner,” Reinoehl, with a partially covered tattoo of a raised fist on the right side of his neck, said in the interview.
He told Vice News that he was an anti-fascist but was not a member of antifa, an umbrella description for far left-leaning militant groups that resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations and other events. Reinoehl previously described himself in a social media post as “100 percent ANTIFA.”
Brady said the four task force members who fired their weapons were two Pierce County Sheriff’s deputies, a police officer from the Washington city of Lakewood and a Washington State Department of Corrections officer.
Brady said investigators haven’t yet determined how many rounds were fired, but witnesses Chad Smith and Chase Cutler, who were working on cars nearby, told the News Tribune that they saw two SUVs converge on a man in a vehicle at the apartment complex. They said they heard 40 to 50 shots, the Tacoma, Wash., newspaper reported.
Brady said he doesn’t think the suspect lived at the address where he was shot.
Reinoehl’s sister, who requested her name not be used because of threats she and her family have been receiving, said Friday that she had been out of touch with him for three years and had no knowledge of his recent movements.
She said her brother’s son and daughter “need to be allowed to grieve what happened.”
“My heart breaks for those kids, but hopefully they can put their lives back together and sort through this and process the trauma that no one that young should ever have to deal with,” the sister said.
Records show that police in Portland cited Reinoehl on July 5 on allegations of possessing a loaded gun in a public place, resisting arrest and interfering with police.
On July 26, Reinoehl was shot near his elbow after he got involved in a scuffle in the city between an armed white man and a group of young people of color.