The gun found in the pants pocket of self-described antifa activist Michael Reinoehl after he was killed by police in Washington fits the make of the gun likely used to kill a man after a pro-Trump rally in Portland last summer, new reports indicate.
Portland police records released this week show that the gun recovered from Reinoehl in Washington was an Inter Ordnance Hellcat .380-caliber pistol – one of three types of .380-caliber guns that ballistics tests indicate likely killed Aaron “Jay” Danielson, an Oregon States Police forensic scientist reported.
Yet a full forensic examination of the gun hasn’t been completed yet, Thurston County Sheriff’s Lt. Ray Brady said this week.
Reinoehl, 48, was accused of shooting Danielson, a follower of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer, in downtown Portland after a car rally Aug. 29 in support of Donald Trump. Danielson, 39, died from a single bullet to the upper right chest, an autopsy found. The bullet was found lodged in his back, according to the autopsy.
Reinoehl went on the run and was killed five days later in Washington by members of a fugitive task force trying to arrest him in Danielson’s death.
According to the Portland police investigative reports, police recovered the bullet from Danielson’s body as well as a spent bullet casing and a bullet fragment from the Portland shooting scene. Investigators sent them to the Oregon State Police crime lab for ballistics analysis.
State forensic scientist Leland Samuelson reported on Sept. 3 that the casing and a bullet fragment were fired from the same .380-caliber gun and that the bullet recovered from Danielson also was fired from a .380-caliber gun.
The casing was likely from one of three makes of a .380-caliber pistol: an Inter Ordnance Hellcat, Colt or Llama, Samuelson reported.
Also on Sept. 3, a Multnomah County Circuit judge signed an arrest warrant for Reinoehl in Danielson’s killing at 4:52 p.m.
Portland Detective Rico Beniga, the lead investigator in Danielson’s homicide, alerted another Portland police detective assigned to the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force of the warrant. That detective notified the marshals’ task force for the Lacey, Wa. area based on information police had that Reinoehl was there, according to the reports.
Around 7:10 p.m. that night, Portland detectives learned that Reinoehl had been shot and killed during his attempted arrest.
Four officers fired more than 30 rounds at Reinoehl after they cornered him in his car on Sept. 3 outside the apartment complex near Lacey, Wa., where he had been hiding out, a Thurston County sheriff’s lieutenant said in October.
Beniga and a Multnomah County deputy district attorney responded to the Washington shooting scene, arriving about 10 p.m. , the reports indicate.
Beniga was on scene when a deputy coroner examined Reinoehl, who was pronounced dead in the street. Investigators in Washington recovered the .380-caliber semi-automatic pistol from Reinoehl’s pants pocket, the reports said.
The Portland homicide detective also noted, according to the police report, that Reinoehl appeared to be wearing the same three-quarter length pants and sandals that he was seen on video wearing during the Aug. 29 fatal shooting of Danielson in Portland, the reports said.
On Oct. 20, Beniga learned the .380-caliber gun recovered from Reinoehl in Washington was being analyzed at the Washington state crime lab. The lab also was awaiting firearm tracing information from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“To date, ballistic examination of the recovered firearm has not been completed in connection with this investigation. Comparative analysis will be conducted upon availability,” the Portland police reports said.
The Portland Police Bureau’s 237-page report also disclosed:
• A day after Danielson was killed, someone shot at Reinoehl’s residence on Northeast 92nd Avenue. Reinoehl and his son rented the basement of the home and another family lived upstairs. The family reported evidence of a shooting after returning home about 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 30. No one was injured.
• Reinoehl’s landlord told police that he gave Reinoehl 10 days to leave the home on Aug. 18 after he discovered high school-age kids smoking pot in Reinoehl’s basement apartment.
When the landlord checked in with Reinoehl via text on Aug. 23, Reinoehl sent a message back, writing that the Proud Boys were after him and he had nowhere else to go, the police report said.
On Aug. 29, the same day Danielson was killed, the landlord again texted Reinoehl to remind him he needed to move out and that he didn’t want the sheriff’s office to evict him. Reinoehl replied that “threatening” to use the sheriff triggered his “PTSD” because those were the people trying to kill him, the police report said. Reinoehl mentioned again that the Proud Boys were after him. That was the last conversation the landlord had with Reinoehl.
• When Portland police searched Reinoehl’s Portland residence on Sept. 3 with a search warrant, officers called in the Metropolitan Explosive Disposal Unit to address an “apparent homemade explosive device found in plain view on a vehicle in the driveway,” the report said. No further mention of the device was found in the report.
