Pierce County Sheriff’s Deputy James Oleole watched from the front passenger seat of an unmarked SUV as homicide suspect Michael Reinoehl, wearing a black shirt, black shorts and a black face mask, emerged from a Lacey apartment.
Moments earlier, Oleole and other members of the U.S. Marshals Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force had gathered for a tactical briefing. They examined photos of Reinoehl, learned he had a silver Volkswagen Jetta, likely was armed with a handgun, a rifle and possibly a shotgun, and had pledged on social media he “would not be taken alive.” They also shared that he had reported being “100 % ANTIFA,” and “thinks he his at war with the police,” according to investigative reports.
The task force officers preferred to arrest him that Sept. 3 evening while he was on foot, but if he got into his car, they planned to block him in to avoid a dangerous high-speed chase, the reports said.
What transpired next was far from what the task force members had anticipated: Their radio reception was faulty, intermittent and full of static, hampering officers’ communications at the scene as soon as Reinoehl was spotted. Within minutes of their arrival, four officers fired 40 gunshots, striking and killing Reinoehl, and also sending children and families outside scattering for cover. The initial officer who fired didn’t wait to step out of his unmarked SUV, firing his rifle through the front windshield, sending glass shards into the face of his partner behind the wheel. At least one bullet flew through an apartment occupied with a woman and several children and lodged in a kitchen wall, according to investigative reports.