BREAKING: Antifa suspect in Portland shooting killed during arrest attempt in Washington

BREAKING: Antifa suspect in Portland shooting killed during arrest attempt in Washington
Michael Reinoehl, "100% Antifa." The Portland shooter of Aaron "Jay" Danielson, in his interview with Vice News shortly before his death in a police shootout on 3 Sep 2020. Vice News video

Thursday evening saw observers ranging from angry to bemused on social media as a Vice News interview with Portland shooting suspect Michael Reinoehl aired across the Web.  Reinoehl, a frequent participant in “protests” in Portland who described himself on social media as “100% Antifa,” had become the primary suspect in the 29 August shooting of Aaron “Jay” Danielson, a member of the Patriot Prayer group who joined the Trump caravan through Portland last Saturday before being killed at point-blank range on a city street.

This tweep (Carlos Osweda) did an in-depth analysis of the shooting, which in his view was premeditated.  It did seem to be coordinated by multiple people on-scene, including Reinoehl.

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(For an original video at Facebook from a pedestrian who caught the whole thing, see this link.  It’s not available for embed.  Start at about the 17:00 minute mark to see the event.)

Yet there was no word for several days on any attempt to apprehend Reinoehl.  Instead, Vice News tracked him down and got an interview with him.

In the interview, Reinoehl effectively admitted he had shot and killed Danielson.  He claimed he was protecting a person of color when he did it, but nothing in the on-scene video (above) appears to back that up.

It’s not clear at the moment if the Vice interview had anything to do with the seemingly belated movement on Reinoehl.  News of the event is about three hours old at this point.  But around 7:30 PM on Thursday, 3 September, Reinoehl was reportedly under surveillance as he left an apartment building in Lacey, Washington, located adjacent to Olympia about 100 miles north of Portland.  He got into a station wagon, apparently preparing to flee the scene, and reportedly had a gun.  He got back out of the car when officers in a federal fugitive task force boxed the car in and fired into it.

Google map; author annotation

Witnesses said Reinoehl fired at the officers, who then fired back in an exchange of some 30 to 50 rounds.  Reinoehl was killed.

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1301751500356628480

The law enforcement team was deputized to the U.S. Marshals Service Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force, and according to Thurston County Sheriff Lt. Ray Brady included officers from “the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, Lakewood Police Department and the Washington Department of Corrections.”

Officials speaking to the Oregonian said “they didn’t know why Reinoehl was in Lacey.”  This seems to indicate he had no known ties there.  Whatever the reason, it’s probably fortuitous that he crossed the state line, as that would have simplified a decision to hand his pursuit over to the U.S. Marshals.  Frankly, we had little reason to expect Portland to do anything about Reinoehl.

The Carlos Osweda tweet thread has details on Reinoehl’s background, including a felony gun charge on which he was released, in July, and a reckless racing rap in Clackamas County earlier this year involving the 48-year-old Reinoehl and his son (racing each other at high speed on Interstate 5).  Reinoehl had his 11-year-old daughter in the car with him for that one.

Reinoehl joined the protest outside Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s condo the night before he shot Aaron Danielson.  Reinoehl’s daughter was also with him on that occasion, armed with a baseball bat.

Aaron Danielson, who went by “Jay,” was 39.

His friend Chandler Pappas spoke to Tucker Carlson on Thursday night, before news of Michael Reinoehl’s death broke.

As Pappas told Carlson, the U.S. needs a lot of healing.

Aaron “Jay” Danielson, R.I.P.

J.E. Dyer

J.E. Dyer

J.E. Dyer is a retired Naval Intelligence officer who lives in Southern California, blogging as The Optimistic Conservative for domestic tranquility and world peace. Her articles have appeared at Hot Air, Commentary’s Contentions, Patheos, The Daily Caller, The Jewish Press, and The Weekly Standard.

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