NYT Breaking: Suspect in Fatal Portland Shooting Is Killed by Officers During Arrest

[Celerity]

Michael Forest Reinoehl, an antifa supporter, died when law enforcement went to arrest him, four officials said. He was being investigated in the fatal shooting of a member of a far-right group.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/03/us/michael-reinoehl-arrest-portland-shooting.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes


Emergency workers attending to Aaron J. Danielson after he was shot during protests in Portland, Ore., on Saturday night.Credit...Mason Trinca for The New York Times

SEATTLE — A man being investigated in the fatal shooting of a right-wing activist who was part of a pro-Trump caravan in Portland, Ore., was killed on Thursday night when authorities moved to arrest him, according to three law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation.

The officials said the suspect, Michael Forest Reinoehl, 48, was killed during the encounter in Lacey, Wash., southwest of Seattle, when a federal fugitive task force moved to apprehend him. An arrest warrant had been issued by the Portland police earlier Thursday, on the same day that Vice News published an interview with Mr. Reinoehl in which he appeared to admit to the shooting, saying, “I had no choice.”

The Portland police had been investigating Saturday’s shooting death of Aaron J. Danielson, one of the supporters of President Trump who came into downtown Portland and clashed with protesters demonstrating against racial injustice and police brutality. Mr. Reinoehl had been a persistent presence at the demonstrations in Portland over recent weeks, helping the protesters with security and suggesting on social media that the struggle was becoming a war where “there will be casualties.”

“I am 100% ANTIFA all the way!” he posted on Instagram in June, referring to a loose collection of activists that have mobilized to oppose groups they see as fascist or racist. “I am willing to fight for my brothers and sisters! Even if some of them are too ignorant to realize what antifa truly stands for. We do not want violence but we will not run from it either!”

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Link to tweet

[RandySF]

1. No water?

[greenjar_01]

2. Well, he killed a member of their gang, so...

[progressive nobody]

3. How convenient.

I'm sorry I just don't like the feeling I'm getting.

[Coventina]

5. Yup. n/t

[gopiscrap]

7. same here

[niyad]

8. Exactly my first thought.

[Nevilledog]

13. If this is accurate, he was killed an hour after trump tweeted this:

Link to tweet

[RandySF]

4. They didn't let him go home?

[Crunchy Frog]

6. Incredibly stupid move on his part.

[JI7]

9. He seemed to be an opportunist looking for some "excitement" . I don't think he cared at all about

actually doing something to make things better for black people.

[RockRaven]

10. I'm shocked. Shocked I tell you.

[standingtall]

11. If he hadn't been killed

I think any plausible self defense strategy a lawyer would've had with him would've been pretty blown up with that interview he gave to Vice.If he would've turned himself in and kept his mouth shut he might have had a chance. I don't know how good a chance, but a chance.

[JonLP24]

12. It seems to me that confessing to self defense would help out that defense

I can't tell from the video, everything is grainy and too far away.

[standingtall]

14. If his story was he thought he thought he and friend were about to be stabbed

it would've hurt his case. The video is grainy, but he can be seen walking behind the guy then getting in front of him by some distance before turning and firing. If he would have said he feared for his life, because someone sprayed mace then maybe, because it looked like someone sprayed mace, but I don't think a defense involving possibly being stabbed would've had any chance.