LACEY, Wash. — A man who said he believed a civil war was coming to America and was suspected of killing a right-wing protester in Portland, Oregon, died in a hail of gunfire in neighboring Washington state, officials and witnesses said.
The killing of Michael Forest Reinoehl shook a quiet suburb of Olympia, Washington Thursday evening — with bystanders ducking for cover behind automobiles from dozens of gunshots as four agents serving on a U.S. Marshals Service task force opened fire at Reinoehl.
Authorities said Reinoehl, 48, was armed with a semi-automatic handgun and a witness who was driving to the small apartment complex that Reinoehl was leaving said she saw him open fire from a car and the officers return fire.
Reinoehl then got out of the car and started running away but collapsed amid more gunfire, the witness, Deshirlynn Chatman, told The Olympian newspaper.
“He did open fire first,” she said in a video posted by The Olympian. Lt. Ray Brady of the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department said investigators have not concluded whether Rienoehl fired any shots.
Another video that was shot during the immediate aftermath showed Reinoehl lying motionless on the street with law enforcement officers in tactical gear and automatic rifles milling around. After several minutes, one man performed chest compressions on Reinoehl.
“Yeah, I don’t think he’s going to make it,” Jashon Spencer narrated on the video that he posted on Facebook.
Brady said he did not believe the officers involved in the shooting had body cameras or dashboard cameras on their vehicles.
In a videotaped interview broadcast the evening of his death by Vice News, Reinoehl came close to admitting he shot Aaron “Jay” Danielson, a supporter of a right-wing group called Patriot Prayer, on Aug. 29 after a caravan of President Donald Trump backers drove their pickup trucks through downtown Portland.
Reinoehl said he “had no choice” but to do what he did because he thought he and a friend were about to be stabbed.
“I hate to say it, but I see a civil war right around the corner,” Reinoehl, with a partially covered tattoo of a raised fist on the right side of his neck, said in the interview.
He told Vice News he was an anti-fascist but was not a member of antifa, an umbrella description for far-left-leaning militant groups that resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations and other events. Reinoehl previously described himself in a social media post as “100% ANTIFA.”
Facebook said on Friday they removed pages related to Patriot Prayer, whose members have brawled with protesters from antifa and other demonstrators in the past.