Antifa Suspect in Fatal Portland Shooting Killed by Officers During Arrest Shortly After VICE News Airs Interview
Vice News aired an interview with Michael Forest Reinoehl, a self-identified “security” member for Black Lives Matter, who admitted to shooting and killing a right-wing demonstrator this past weekend.
On late Thursday night, however, news broke that Reinoehl had been killed in southwest Washington state by a federal fugitive task force as they tried to apprehend him, per the New York Times.
According to a preview of the Vice News interview posted online, Reinoehl claims he shot Aaron “Jay” Danielson, a member of the “Patriot Prayer” right-wing group, this past Saturday in Portland out of self-defense. Reinoehl has not been arrested or charged with a crime, and Portland Police have not publicly identified him as a target of their investigation.
The 48-year-old Reinoehl, an Army veteran who proclaimed himself “100% ANTIFA,” was interviewed by freelance journalist, Donovan Farley, in an unknown outdoor location.
“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,” Reinoehl said of the violent encounter in the preview clip. He then acknowledges the highly unorthodox nature of his giving interviews while walking around free after having confessing to shooting and killing another man.
“You know, lots of lawyers suggest that I shouldn’t even be saying anything,” he said. “But I feel it’s important that the world at least gets a little bit of what’s really going on.”
According to the NY Times, Reinoehl admitted to being ANTIFA:
“I am 100% ANTIFA all the way!” he posted on Instagram in June, referring to a loose collection of activists who have mobilized to oppose groups they see as fascist or racist. “I am willing to fight for my brothers and sisters! Even if some of them are too ignorant to realize what antifa truly stands for. We do not want violence but we will not run from it either!”
Watch the full interview on Vice News Tonight on Thursday night, September 3rd, at 11:00 p.m.
