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A QUICK END FOR ACCUSED PORTLAND ANTIFA SHOOTER. On Sunday afternoon, Vice News released excerpts of an interview it had done with Michael Reinoehl, the Antifa supporter suspected of killing a pro-Trump demonstrator last weekend on a Portland street. In the clip, Reinoehl essentially confessed. Describing the shooting, Reinoehl said, “I had to choice. I mean, 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.”
Reinoehl, age 48, told Vice he felt justified in killing Aaron Danielson, who was part of a pro-Trump group called Patriot Prayer. “I was confident that I did not hit anyone innocent,” Reinoehl said. “And I made my exit.”
Vice said it would release the full interview at 11 p.m. Eastern time. By then, Reinoehl was dead. According to an account in the Oregonian, Portland police issued a warrant for his arrest “earlier in the day.” It’s not clear whether that was in reaction to the release of the Vice video of Reinoehl acknowledging the shooting. In any event, law enforcement staked out an apartment building where they believed Reinoehl was hiding.
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All hell broke loose when Reinoehl came out of the building. Members of a federal fugitive task force watched from unmarked SUVs. Reinoehl ran to his car. Then, according to an account in The Olympian, Reinoehl “got out of his vehicle and began to fire what [witnesses] believe was an assault rifle at the SUVs. They said they heard 40 or 50 shots, then officers returned fire, hitting the man. ‘It reminded me of a video game,'” one witness said.
The Reinoehl case, finally at an end, showed the dangers of Portland’s lax law enforcement during its months of riots. First, there was no doubt where Reinoehl stood. “I am 100% ANTIFA all the way!” he wrote recently. “Today’s protesters and antifa are my brothers in arms.” Then, Reinoehl showed a clear inclination to act on his violent beliefs. Just read the Oregonian’s account of his record.
During a riot on July 5, Portland police tried to arrest him. He resisted. In a scuffle as officers struggled to subdue him, a loaded 9mm handgun fell out of Reinoehl’s pocket. What happened then? “He was cited and released,” the Oregonian said. He was given a date to appear in court, but the allegation was dropped with a “no complaint.”
Three weeks later, on July 26, Reinoehl was in a group of people who attacked a man they called a “Nazi” in downtown Portland. The man had a concealed weapons permit and a 9mm in a holster. Reinoehl tried to grab the man’s gun. In the wrestling that ensued, the gun went off, hitting Reinoehl in the arm. Reinoehl was not charged.
Just for good measure, a few weeks before those two incidents, Reinoehl skipped out on a warrant stemming from a case in which Reinoehl and his 17 year-old son raced cars in the middle of the night on Interstate 84. With his 11 year old daughter in his car, along with marijuana, prescription drugs, and a loaded Glock for which he had no permit, Reinoehl hit speeds of up to 111 miles per hour, according to police. He also had a suspended license and no insurance. But he was let out from that, too.
Throughout the violence in Portland, critics have complained that the authorities simply weren’t enforcing the law, weren’t charging those caught committing crimes during riots. Indeed, charges were few. In early August, for example, the Multnomah County District Attorney announced that his office would not charge most people committing crimes during the protests, in order to “promote a safe community and reduce the negative and lasting impacts a person can experience once involved in the criminal justice system following an arrest resulting from a peaceful protest or mass demonstration.”
Michael Reinoehl was no peaceful protester. By the time of the shooting at the pro-Trump demonstration, police knew he had an inclination for violence, guns, and danger. Yet even as he continued to take part in riots, he never faced any punishment until the fugitive task force approached his apartment on Thursday night.
