News

For Immediate Release – July 11, 2023

 CONTACT: Jesse Merrithew, Levi Merrithew Horst PC, 971-229-1241, jesse@lmhlegal.com

Lawyers representing the estate of Michael Reinoehl filed a lawsuit today against federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies for the killing of Reinoehl on September 3, 2020. The lawsuit alleges that, acting under the auspices of a U.S. Marshals Service Task Force, officers from several agencies descended on a Lacey Washington neighborhood with no plan to take Reinoehl alive, limited ability to communicate with one another, and a confused, if any, incident command structure resulting in one task force member yelling to “take him, take him now” while another urged letting him drive to a location where he could be safely apprehended.

Michael Reinoehl was a Portland based activist who participated in numerous demonstrations and protests in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. Portland was the scene of frequent clashes between protestors on the political right and left. On August 28, 2020, Reinoehl shot and killed an armed right-wing extremist “Patriot Prayer” member. Though Reinoehl may have acted in self-defense, his residence was shot up by right wing extremists and his family threatened, causing him to flee Portland for safety.

On a clear sunny early evening, the armed task force members descended upon a residential area. They were in unmarked vehicles, had no visible identification as law enforcement officers, were not heard by any neighborhood residents to identify themselves, and gave Reinoehl no opportunity to surrender. They began shooting while still in their cars, firing through the windshield of their car. Police fired a total of 41 shots, including into neighboring residences. Five shots struck Reinoehl. Shocked neighbors believed they were witnessing a road rage or gang incident.

After killing Reinoehl, law enforcement officers were not segregated and had over ten days to confer before any of them gave a statement. The head of the operation, Deputy U.S. Marshal Ryan Kimmel, refused to submit to an interview or give any statement at all. Despite Reinoehl’s obvious fear of right-wing attacks, when the officers finally gave statements, they claimed Reinoehl’s “facial expression” demonstrated he knew they were police rather than right-wing vigilantes. No gun was displayed though a gun was found in his pants after his death.

“These task forces are attempting to operate in a legal no-man’s-land,” said Braden Pence, one of the attorneys representing the estate. “They are using discredited techniques known to increase the chances of a deadly shooting and are doing so with no accountability whatsoever. No community would tolerate this lack of accountability in their local police force, and no one should tolerate it simply because they are operating in the auspices of a federal task force.”

The family of Michael Reinoehl asks that the media respect their privacy and refers all questions to their lawyers. The estate is represented by the Seattle law firms Schroeter Goldmark & Bender and MacDonald Hoague & Bayless, along with Portland firm Levi Merrithew Horst

For immediate release July 11, 2023. 9am PDT

Today, a US Marshal’s Accountability Project was formed by social justice activists in the Pacific Northwest to start a national effort to hold the US Marshal’s Office accountable for the history of excessive force used by its many “Violent Fugitive Task Forces” around the country. The formation of this Project was prompted in part by the filing of a federal lawsuit on behalf of the family of Michael Reinoehl, the victim of the fatal police shooting by federal, state and local police operating under the pretense of a United States Marshall’s Service (“USMS”) task force. Read this coverage from the New York Times.

This lawsuit is just the latest in a series of lawsuits and exposes by independent journalists of the role of these Marshal’s Task Forces and their use of deadly force to effectuate what amount to “extra-judicial punishment.”   The Project wishes to shine a light on this history and how these Task Forces have escaped any accountability for their actions. The US Marshal’s Services’ Task Forces have been widely criticized for repeated use of excessive force and its lack of accountability in executing fugitive warrants, as described in this USA Today article. This study, performed in conjunction with USA Today and the Arizona Republic newspaper, concluded that the US Marshal’s Task Forces kill an average of 22 suspects and bystanders each year far more than any local police department.

The newly created US Marshal’s Accountability Project (MAP), including local activists Cindy Domingo, Nikkita Oliver and Mike Withey, has published a “Petition of Accountability” to support the lawsuit and efforts to hold the US Marshal’s Service Task Force accountable.

The Petition is published on the Project’s website. http://usmaproject.com The Petition asks US Attorney General Merrick Garland to require the Assistant US Marshal Ryan Kimmel to be questioned under oath in the Reinoehl lawsuit. Kimmel headed up the “Northwest Violent Offenders Task Force” (including the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, the City of Lacey Police Department and the Washington State Department of Corrections) The Petition also asks the Inspector General of the DOJ to conduct an audit into the use of deadly force by the US Marshal’s Task Forces.

On October 15, 2020 Congresspeople Ted Lieu (D CA 33rd) and Kathleen Rice (D NY 4th)wrote a letter to the Inspector General of the US Department of Justice, Michael Horowitz requesting it open an investigation into whether this was an “extrajudicial killing” (read the Lieu-Rice letter here) The letter questioned the role of former President Trump who made this comment on the killing: “We sent in the US Marshalls, took 15 minutes and it was over. 15 minutes it was over. We got him. They knew who he was, they didn’t want to arrest him and 15 minutes that ended.” (OPB, Oct 15, 2020)

For other press coverage see this article from Vox.

MAP Co-Chairs:

    • Cindy Domingo (she/her) is a long time social justice advocate in the Pacific Northwest. She was the legislative assistant for King County Councilman Larry Gossett and the co-chair for the Committee for Justice for Domingo and Viernes who held former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos accountable for the murder of her brother Silme Domingo and friend Gene Viernes (1981-1989)

    • Nikkita Oliver (they/them), is a local Organizer, Artist, Activist, Executive Director, Attorney working and organizing in the Coastal Salish Territories.

    • Mike Withey (he/him) is a human rights and personal injury attorney from Seattle, who brought the federal lawsuit against Marcos, and author of Summary Execution: The Seattle Assassinations of Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes (WildBlue Press 2018) and see www.michaelwithey.com.