‘See all of those yellow markings. They’re bullets.’ Witnesses describe Reinoehl shooting
Officials have confirmed to The Olympian and The News Tribune that officers from Department of Corrections, Pierce County Sheriff’s Department and Lakewood Police Department shot and killed 48-year-old Michael Forest Reinoehl, the suspect in last weekend’s fatal shooting in Portland.
Read the breaking news story on Reinoehl’s death here.
The Olympian had three reporters on the scene, talking to witnesses to better understand what happened.
Here’s what they said occurred Thursday night in Tanglewilde:
The shooting happened in the 7600 block of 3rd Way Southeast around 7 p.m. Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said “the suspect came out to the car. They attempted to put him into custody and shots were fired.”
Thurston County Sheriff’s Lt. Ray Brady said officers shot into the car, the suspect ran from the car, and officers fired again.
Chad Smith and Chase Cutler, who were working on cars nearby Thursday, said an unmarked SUV has been parked on School Street for a while when that SUV and another converged on a man in a vehicle in the apartment complex. Smith and Cutler moved onto a grassy area about 50 yards away to watch what was happening.
The man got out of his vehicle and began to fire what they 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,” Cutler said.
A man who asked not to be named was out walking his dog when he saw the two SUVs pull up. Then he said he heard shots, saw gun smoke from the right side, then several shots almost instantly from the left side. He said he took cover behind a parked vehicle. Overall, he estimated he heard 30-40 shots.
Neighbor Trevor Brown was in his living room when he heard eight to 10 gunshots in quick succession. He walked outside and saw the two unmarked SUVs that had pulled onto 3rd Way from two different directions. Then he saw the body in the street.
Officers tried to perform CPR on the man, witnesses said.
A Facebook Live video was posted around 7 p.m. Thursday showing a white man motionless on the road with several law enforcement officials surrounding him.
Jashon Spencer, who posted the video, immediately said, “I think he’s dead.”
“I was sitting in my backyard and all I heard was pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. … I come outside and there’s a million sheriffs out here, and there’s a dude laying out here by the mailbox and he’s bleeding. They hit him.”
In the first minute of the video, authorities appear to be evaluating Reinoehl, and there are sirens in the background.
“I don’t know why anybody would want to shootout with the police out here,” Spencer said. “They deep. You see all of those yellow markings. They’re bullets. They let loose on him.”
About two minutes into the video, officials start CPR on Reinoehl.
This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 10:56 PM.
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