What we know about Portland shooting suspect Michael Reinoehl
By the time Michael Forest Reinoehl died on a Thurston County street Thursday evening, he’d been an official suspect in a downtown Portland homicide for only a few hours.
But Reinoehl, 48, was no stranger to law enforcement, Portland protests or the media.
Earlier in the day, in a video interview with Vice News, Reinoehl all but admitted that he had shot President Donald Trump supporter Aaron “Jay” Danielson on Aug. 29.
Around the same time Reinoehl’s video interview was posted to YouTube, a Multnomah County, Oregon, judge issued a warrant for his arrest.
Reinoehl, who was white, denied he was a member of far-left antifa but said he was “100% anti-facist” in the Vice interview. He had a prominent Black Lives Matter raised-fist tattoo on his neck.
According to records, Reinoehl lived in Clackamas, Oregon from 2018 to as recently as August. Before that, he spent roughly 20 years living in Sandy, Oregon and other nearby cities along U.S. Route 26.
It was on Interstate 84 in June when Reinoehl and his 17-year-old son were arrested for racing in separate vehicles, according to the Baker City Herald. They were allegedly traveling in excess of 100 miles per hour.
Reinoehl was charged with driving under the influence, reckless endangerment of his 11-year-old daughter who was in his car and possession of an unlawful firearm — a Glock pistol.
On July 26, Reinoehl showed a gunshot wound to a video journalist from Bloomberg QuickTake News in downtown Portland. He said he had been shot in the arm when he tried to disarm a man who was fighting with protesters. Briefly, the camera swings over to a car where a girl he identifies as his daughter is seated.
“I have my daughter with me here, because I’m trying to give her an education,” he said.
Reinoehl claimed he had served in the Army and hated the experience, he told one interviewer. Records provided by LexisNexis show a Michael F. Reinoehl of the same age living at Fort Lewis (now Joint Base Lewis-McChord) but a date could not be ascertained.
A public information officer at JBLM could not find any recent record of Reinoehl. Presumably, Reinoehl would have served around 1990.
Reinoehl described himself as a professional snowboarder and contractor.
Reinoehl’s sister told The Oregonian/OregonLive she woke Friday morning with mixed emotions, including anger, at her brother.
“I’m worried about his kids. I’m still in shock,” she told The Oregonian. “I’m overwhelmed by this and what this means to the country at large. I’m sad that this whole thing happened.”
The sister said Reinoehl had a history of “acting first and rationalizing it later.”
His sister said she doesn’t know why her brother made his way to the apartment near Lacey. Her niece is with family, she said. She didn’t know the location of her nephew.
This story was originally published September 4, 2020 at 5:12 PM.
