Protester suspected of killing Right-winger is shot dead in arrest

Killed: Aaron Danielson, a member of Patriot Prayer, was shot during clashes with Left-wing protesters in Portland
AP
John Dunne @jhdunne4 September 2020

A racial justice protester suspected of killing a Right-wing counter demonstrator in Oregon has been shot and killed as officers tried to arrest him.

Michael Reinoehl, 48, had brandished a gun as a fugitive task force swooped in a suburb in neighbouring Washington state, according to an official.

He was the prime suspect in the killing of Aaron Danielson, a member of the Right-wing group Patriot Prayer, who was shot in the chest in the city of Portland on Saturday night.

City authorities said the 39-year-old was fatally shot during clashes between supporters of US President Donald Trump and counter-protesters.

Federal agents from the FBI and the US Marshals Service had located Reinoehl yesterday after a warrant was issued for his arrest.

During the encounter in Lacey, outside the state capital Olympia, Reinoehl was shot by a law enforcement officer who was working on the federal task force, the official told Associated Press on condition of anonymity. They added that Reinoehl had pulled a gun during the encounter.

Reinoehl had described himself in a social media post as “100% ANTIFA”, in reference to the loose network of anti-fascism activists. He also suggested the tactics of counter-protesters amounted to “warfare”, and had been shot at one protest and was said to have had a gun at another.

Around the time Reinoehl was shot, President Trump called on Twitter for Portland police to arrest “the cold-blooded killer of Aaron ‘Jay’ Danielson.” “Everybody knows who this thug is,” Mr Trump tweeted. “No wonder Portland is going to hell!”