Police shoot Portland suspect
The man was suspected of being the gunman who killed a right-wing demonstrator last week.
LACEY, Wash. — A team of law enforcement officers fatally shot a man suspected of being the gunman who killed a supporter of a right-wing group in Portland, Oregon, last week after a caravan of Donald Trump backers rode through downtown, the U.S. Marshals Service said Friday.
Michael Forest Reinoehl, 48, was killed as a federal task force attempted to apprehend him near Lacey, Washington, about 120 miles north of Portland. Reinoehl was suspected in the killing of Aaron “Jay” Danielson, 39, who was shot in the chest the night of Aug. 29, a senior Justice Department official said.
Federal agents from the FBI and the Marshals Service had located him Thursday after a warrant was issued for his arrest, and Reinoehl pulled a gun during the encounter, the official said. The official wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
A Marshals Service statement later said the fugitive task force “attempted to peacefully arrest him.”
“Initial reports indicate the suspect produced a firearm, threatening the lives of law enforcement officers. Task force members responded to the threat and struck the suspect who was pronounced dead at the scene,” the statement said.
Thurston County sheriff’s Lt. Ray Brady said four task force members fired their weapons, including two Pierce County sheriff’s deputies, an officer from the Lakewood Police Department and an officer from the Washington State Department of Corrections.
The suspect was alone at the time of the shooting, Brady said.
Brady said he doesn’t think the suspect lived at the address where he was shot, and it’s not clear what brought him to Lacey.
“We don’t know that specifically yet,” Brady said. “I do not believe that was his residence.”
Reinoehl had described himself in a social media post as “100% ANTIFA.” A regular presence at antiracism demonstrations in Portland, he suggested the tactics of counterprotesters amounted to “warfare” and had been shot at during one protest and cited for having a gun at another.
“The tracking down of Reinoehl — a dangerous fugitive, admitted Antifa member, and suspected murderer — is a significant accomplishment in the ongoing effort to restore law and order to Portland and other cities,” U.S. Attorney General William Barr said in a statement.
Police 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 between an armed white man and a group of young people of color.
The man who was carrying that gun, Aaron Scott Collins, told The Oregonian/OregonLive that he and a friend had just left a bar when they saw the group harassing an older Black man. His friend began filming them with a phone, and the group confronted them, calling them Nazis, he said.
Reinoehl later that day spoke to an AP videographer. He said he didn’t know what had started the altercation between Collins and the group, but that several people had decided to intervene when they saw Collins fighting with minors.
“As soon as the adults jumped in, he pulled out a gun,” Reinoehl said. “I jumped in there and pulled the gun away from people’s heads, avoided being shot in the stomach, and I got shot in the arm.”
Reinoehl also was wanted on a warrant out of Baker County in eastern Oregon, where court records show he skipped a hearing related to a June case in which he has been charged with driving under the influence of controlled substances, reckless driving, reckless endangerment and unlawful possession of a firearm.
Police said he drove on an interstate at up to 111 mph, with his daughter in the car, while racing his 17-year-old son, who was in a different vehicle.