A man suspected of killing a Trump supporter in Portland, OR, was shot and killed by U.S. Marshals and FBI agents Thursday night.
Michael Forest Reinoehl, 48, was shot by a federally led fugitive taskforce as he left an apartment in Lacey, Washington, the Guardian reports.
A witness reportedly heard 30 to 40 shots being fired.
Why aren’t the Portland Police ARRESTING the cold blooded killer of Aaron “Jay” Danielson. Do your job, and do it fast. Everybody knows who this thug is. No wonder Portland is going to hell! @TheJusticeDept @FBI
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2020
“As they attempted to apprehend him, there was gunfire,” Lt Ray Brady of the Thurston county sheriff’s office told the New York Times.
Reinoehl is accused of fatally shooting 39-year-old Aaron “Jay” Danielson, a supporter of the far-right group Patriot Prayer.
An arrest warrant for Reinoehl was issued early Thursday. The arrest warrant came after Reinoehl confessed to killing Danielson in an interview published in Vice on Thursday.
Reinoehl said the shooting was self-defense in the interview, claiming Danielson was armed with a knife.
“You know, lots of lawyers suggest that I shouldn’t even be saying anything, but I feel it’s important that the world at least gets a little bit of what’s really going on. I had no choice. I mean, I … 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.”
The task force located him in Olympia and attempted to arrest him peacefully.
“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.
“The suspect was shot trying to flee,” according to a statement from the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.
