Suspect in Portland protest killing dies in hail of gunfire
LACEY, WASH. >> A man who said he believed a civil war was coming to America and was suspected of killing a rightwing protester in Portland, Oregon, died in a hail of police gunfire in neighboring Washington state, officials and witnesses said.
The killing of Michael Forest Reinoehl shook a quiet suburb of Olympia, Washington, 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.
Reinoehl, 48, was armed with a semiautomatic handgun but authorities have not determined if he fired any shots, said Lt. Ray Brady of the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department.
A video shot during the immediate aftermath showed a man lying motionless on a street next to a row of mailboxes with law enforcement officers in tactical gear and automatic rifles milling around. After a couple of minutes, one man performed chest compressions on Reinoehl.
“Yeah, I don’t think he’s going to make it,” Jashon Spencer narrated on the video that he posted on Facebook showing the scene that unfolded in front of a small apartment complex.
Brady said he did not believe the officers involved in the shooting had body cameras or dashboard cameras on their vehicles.
In a videotaped interview broadcast the evening of his death by Vice News, Reinoehl came close to admitting he shot Aaron “Jay” Danielson, a supporter of a right-wing group, on Aug. 29 after a caravan of President Donald Trump backers drove their pickup trucks 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 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% ANTIFA.”
It was not immediately clear where Reinoehl hid out in the five days that elapsed since the shooting in Portland.
Brady said the “suspect” who was killed — he declined to name him as Reinoehl — left an apartment shortly around 7 p.m. Thursday, got into a vehicle, and was confronted by the task force members. They fired into the vehicle, Reinoehl got out and ran and was shot, Brady said.