PORTLAND — During a campaign rally Thursday, President Donald Trump said once more that he sent the U.S. Marshals Service to go after Portland murder suspect Michael Reinoehl, a self-described Portland anti-fascist accused of killing a right-wing Trump supporter, and added, “They knew who he was. They didn’t want to arrest him. Fifteen minutes, that ended.”
“We sent in the U.S. Marshals. It took 15 minutes it was over. Fifteen minutes, it was over. We got him,” he said to applause in Greenville, N.C. “They knew who he was. They didn’t want to arrest him. Fifteen minutes, that ended.”
Trump last month during a Fox TV interview on the “Justice With Judge Jeanine” show praised the fatal police shooting of Reinoehl, calling it appropriate “retribution.”
Trump last month characterized Reinoehl’s alleged shooting of Aaron “Jay” Danielson in downtown Portland on Aug. 29 as a “cold-blooded” killing and said he pushed two and a half days later for Reinoehl’s arrest.
“And the U.S. Marshals went in to get him. And, in a short period of time, it ended in a gun fight. This guy was a violent criminal. And the U.S. Marshals killed him,” Trump said last month. “I will tell you something, that’s the way it has to be. There has to be retribution when you have crime like this.”
On Sept. 3, four officers from three different Washington law enforcement agencies fired a total of 37 rounds at Reinoehl after confronting him outside an apartment near Lacey. The officers were part of the U.S. Marshals Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force.
The task force was trying to arrest Reinoehl on a warrant signed that afternoon by a Multnomah County judge that charged Reinoehl with second-degree murder with a firearm and unlawful use of a firearm in the shooting of Danielson after a pro-Trump car caravan in downtown Portland.
Pete Cajigal, chief of the U.S. Marshals Service in Oregon, declined to comment on Trump’s remarks Thursday. “Since this is an open investigation we cannot offer comment at this time,” he said.
Reinoehl was a self-described anti-fascist who said he provided security for demonstrators at ongoing protests in Portland against police violence and racial injustice after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. Danielson had participated in the Trump caravan and was a backer of Patriot Prayer, a right-wing group based in Vancouver known for clashing with antifa supporters in Portland.
Four officers from a multi-agency federal task force pulled up in two unmarked SUVS in front of Reinoehl’s Volkswagen after they saw him walk to his car from an apartment complex near Lacey, get in and start the car. Witnesses said they didn’t hear officers issue any commands before firing numerous shots at Reinoehl.
Thurston County Sheriff’s Lt. Ray Brady said one of the officers had the door to his car open and gave “commands to stop and show his hands” before they shot him. Two officers reported Reinoehl began reaching toward the center console of his car and one officer saw what he believed to be a handgun “presented by Mr. Reinoehl toward the officers,” according to Brady.
Reinoehl, wounded, ran out and behind his car and into the street, beside mailboxes, and collapsed from further shots fired by officers. Police found Reinoehl with a loaded .380-caliber handgun partially withdrawn from his right front pants pocket and his hand on it after he was fatally shot, Brady said.
