The family of a man whose death former President Donald Trump celebrated as "retribution" is suing, claiming that law enforcement's only intention was to kill him.
The estate of Michael Reinoehl, a far-left activist and self-proclaimed "Antifa" member who was killed by a federal task force during an arrest attempt, is suing the state of Washington, Rolling Stone reported.
Reinoehl was a fugitive at the time of his death after being charged with second-degree murder for shooting and killing Aaron “Jay” Danielson, a member of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer, during clashes between far-left and far-right groups in downtown Portland back in 2020.
The shooting of Danielson had attracted the attention of conservatives who said it was just another example of violence from the far-left. When Reinoehl was later killed by police, Donald Trump chimed in, saying it was "retribution" for the killing of Danielson. Before his death, Trump voiced a message to law enforcement who were hunting Reinoehl, telling them: “Do your job, and do it fast.”
As Rolling Stone points out, the lawsuit filed Tuesday says police “did not afford Reinoehl an opportunity to surrender,” failed to observe a “standard of care for high-risk law enforcement operations” and failed to provide any “warning or announcement that they were police.” A police search after his death found he had a pistol in his pants pocket and a disassembled rifle in his backpack. Cops claimed he reached for a weapon when they opened fire.
The lawsuit accuses the U.S. government, Pierce County Washington, and four members of law enforcement from Washington state, of “operating under the vanishingly thin pretense of a United States Marshals Service task force.”
“From the perspective of a reasonable person in Reinoehl’s shoes, the aggressive driving, sudden and unprovoked shooting, and physical appearance of the individual Defendants was indistinguishable from the armed and violent far-right extremists who Reinoehl feared had recently shot up his home," the suit states.
Trump commented on Reinoehl’s death more than once. In a Fox News interview, he said he "was a violent criminal, and the U.S. Marshals killed him."
"And I will tell you something, that’s the way it has to be. There has to be retribution when you have crime like this," Trump said.
Read more at Rolling Stone.
