‘I had no choice’: Portland shooting suspect Michael Forest Reinoehl said before own death
Michael Forest Reinoehl, the man killed Thursday night near Lacey by law enforcement, reportedly admitted to a deadly Portland shooting in a TV interview.
Reinoehl, 48, was a suspect in Saturday’s shooting death of Aaron “Jay” Danielson in Oregon during a clash between supporters of President Trump and protesters demonstrating against police brutality.
“I had no choice,” Reinoehl told a freelance journalist working for Vice News in a video interview. “I mean, I had a choice. I could of sat there and watched them kill a friend of mine of color. But I wasn’t going to do that.”
He said he thought his friend was about to be stabbed.
“Lots of lawyers suggest that I shouldn’t even be saying anything,” Reinoehl said in the interview. “But I feel that it’s important that the world at least gets a little bit of what’s really going on.”
Danielson, 39, a supporter of Washington-based far-right activist group Patriot Prayer, was shot in the chest in circumstances that still aren’t clear.
Reinoehl called the Portland incident a free-for-all that police allowed to happen.
“I realized what had happened,” Reinoehl told Vice. “I was confident that I had not hit anyone that was innocent. And I made my exit.”
He apparently calls the shooting of Danielson “totally justified.”
Reinoehl had been a presence at Portland demonstrations, according to The New York Times. He allegedly suggested “there will be casualties” on social media, according to the Times.
He showed a bloody and bandaged arm to Bloomberg QuickTake News in late July. He said he had been shot while trying to disarm someone during a melee in Portland.
“They’re trying to disrupt us in every way that’s illegal,” Reinoehl said. “They’re shooting at us, they’re sending in people to start fights.” It wasn’t clear to whom he was referring.
He said he had military experience and was born and raised in the Portland area. He introduced a young nearby girl as his daughter. In the Vice interview, he said his son was with him the day of the Portland shooting.
He said he was a professional snowboarder and contractor.
“I’m not crazy,” he said.
“I am 100% anti-facist,” Reinoehl said in the Vice interview. “I’m not a member of Antifa. I’m not a member of anything. I hate to say it, but I see a civil war right around the corner. That shot felt like the beginning of a war.”
Reinoehl had been arrested for carrying a gun at a protest, according to the Wall Street Journal. He’d also been arrested for driving 100 miles per hour.
Reinoehl was identified shortly after the shooting as the suspect by various groups online. His sister told the Journal that their family had been getting death threats shortly thereafter and had fled their home.
“I don’t know what happened,” the sister told the Journal. “I only know that the pictures that were sent our way by people threatening our lives looked like they may be him.”
This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 10:36 PM.
