BACKGROUNDER ON SEPTEMBER 2020 KILLING OF MICHAEL REINOEHL
BY THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST VIOLENT FUGITIVE TASK FORCE.
Michael Reinoehl was gunned down on a sunny late afternoon in Lacey, Washington on Sept. 3, 2020. Oregon state officials filed a murder charge against Reinoehl in Portland, Oregon about ninety minutes before the Task Force had surrounded Reinoehl in his car, and Defendant James Oleole’s of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office yelled into his police radio “Let’s go take him!”– “Take him, take him now!” Yet at the very same time his fellow officers were cautioning “We’re too far, let him drive,” indicating that they should wait for a better opportunity to apprehend Reinoehl.
Based on misleading and incomplete information and the lack of any adequate pre-planning, the officers who opened fire on Reinoehl fully expected to use deadly force during their attempt to “take” him. They shot first and asked questions later. They drove unmarked cars, appeared as likely to be militia members as police, and gave Reinoehl no verbal identification, warnings, or opportunity to surrender. At no time did Michael brandish or attempt to use a firearm or other weapon.
A 2021 investigation after the shooting by the Thurston County Sheriff’s and Prosecuting Attorney’s Office who declined to charge any officers involved in the shooting, found:
- “Deputy United States Marshal Ryan Kimmel has never submitted to an interview or provided a statement or report describing his version of the events. Although Kimmel was on the scene at the time of the officer involved shooting.”
- The Task Force was convened hastily, and failed to notify the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office that it would be operating in Thurston County. The Prosecuting Attorney stated: “I find no evidence that the Sherriff’s Office was provided notice, and when the shooting erupted, the responding deputies were unaware that a US Marshal’s task force was operating in their jurisdiction. In my view, the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office should have been provided notice of the presence of the task force”
- The Task Force members were using different radio frequencies which inhibited their ability to communicate with one another during its actions. The Prosecutor stated: “I also question the tactical decision of the task force continuing the operation without finding a way to effectively communicate with each other.”
- The communication deficiency created confusion during the critical tactical decision to attempt an arrest and “it appears that the leader of the team could not effectively communicate a decision to the other officers.” In fact, the recorded radio traffic captured a debate among the members where some officers felt they should move in and at least one other expressed concern they were too far away and should wait.
- Task Force member Craig Gotcha (Pierce County Sheriff’s Office) shot through the windshield of his own Ford SUV at Reinoehl as he sat in the driver’s seat of this Jetta, which was then surrounded by Task Force vehicles unable to drive anywhere.
- All of the Task Force members involved in shooting Reinoehl used the same justification for shooting him, stating after the fact to have seen Reinoehl “continuously” reach toward or into his pocket or waistband from the time he was in the driver’s seat, as he excited the vehicle and as he strode away from the Jetta where he was fatally shot.
- After he was shot and killed by numerous gun shots, a pistol which had not been fired was observed in Reinoehl’s front right pocket without a round in the chamber. None of the officers actually observed Reinoehl with a gun.
The lawsuit alleges that the officers were not segregated before giving their statements to police investigators, giving them an opportunity to “get their stories straight.” This was a case of the Task Force having a policy and pattern to “shoot first, ask questions later” all without adequate pre-planning to make sure the US Marshal’s Service’s mission to effectuate arrests “without injury” was followed.
The law firms filing this action include Rebecca Roe and Jeffery Robinson of Schroeter Goldmark & Bender of Seattle, Braden Pence of MacDonald Hoague and Bayless of Seattle, and Jesse Merrithew of Portland Oregon.
ADDITONAL RESOURCES and PRESS COVERAGE:
- A Study conducted jointly by USA Today, The Arizona Republic, and the Marshall Project: US marshals act like local police, but with more violence and less accountability
- The Reinoehl shooting was covered extensively by the New York Times, who recreated the scene.
- CNN: Trump gloats about US Marshals’ killing of Portland ‘antifa’ suspect
- In Vox: “There has to be retribution”: Trump’s chilling comments about extrajudicial killings, briefly explained
- From OPB: “President Trump boasts of law enforcement who killed Portland protester: ‘They didn’t want to arrest him’”
- Complaint: https://usmaproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/1-Complaint.pdf
OCTOBER 15, 2020