Fatal ‘negligence’
Portland, Ore., gets sued in ‘antifa slay’
Portland, Ore., officials are partly responsible for the fatal shooting of a man who participated in a pro-Trump rally in the city — because of their “handsoff” approach to the turbulent protests that roiled the area, his estate contends in a lawsuit.
Mayor Ted Wheeler, the local district attorney and the city created a “culture of vigilante policing” that led to the murder of Aaron “Jay” Danielson, 39, in August 2020, the $13 million lawsuit filed Friday claims, according to the Oregonian.
Danielson’s shooter, Michael Forest Reinoehl, was working as a volunteer security “officer” for BLM-antifa at the time and had identified himself as “100 percent antifa” in social-media posts.
“We are seeking justice for the preventable death of a young man, gunned down in a city with a dangerous and deadly hands-off approach to public safety. Time and time again, city leadership and law enforcement have failed to find an effective response to clashing groups of protesters,” Christopher L. Cauble, the estate’s attorney, said in a statement.
Wheeler’s office declined to comment, while Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt did not immediately return a message seeking comment, the paper reported.
Danielson was pronounced dead just 10 minutes after suffering a single shot to the chest. He had reportedly attended a pro-Trump rally in Clackamas County, near Portland, earlier in the day and was wearing a hat from Patriot Prayer, a conservative group out of nearby Vancouver, Wash.
Reinoehl allegedly lay in wait for Danielson and a friend, who was unharmed, in a parking garage, before reaching for a handgun in his pocket or waistband, according to author Andy Ngo.
Surveillance video confirms Ngo’s account, but does not capture the actual shooting. Reinoehl soon copped to the killing, according to Vice News.
“I had no choice. I mean, I, I had a choice. I could have sat there and watched them kill a friend of mine of color. But I wasn’t going to do that,” he told Vice.
Reinoehl himself was shot and killed days later, following a standoff with a multi-agency federal task force as they attempted to arrest him on charges of second-degree murder and firearms violations in Danielson’s fatal shooting.