Sister of Portland murder suspect Michael Reinoehl urges peace after his fatal shooting by police in Washington

The sister of Portland murder suspect Michael Forest Reinoehl, the 48-year-old man killed by police Thursday night in Washington, said she awoke Friday with a flood of emotions.

“I’m worried about his kids. I’m still in shock. I’m overwhelmed by this and what this means to the country at large. I’m sad that this whole thing happened,” she told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “And, I’m a little mad at him, to be honest, that all of this has happened in the first place.”

Reinoehl’s sister, an Oregon native who lives in the Portland area and is a 36-year-old married mother of two children, had been estranged from her older brother for the past three years. Reinoehl, who described himself as “100 % ANTIFA,” was the suspected gunman in a fatal encounter Saturday with a right-wing demonstrator after a pro-Trump rally rolled through downtown.

His sister said she was stunned when she received calls Thursday night telling her he’d been killed.

“I said a lot of ’What? What? Really? Oh my God … and then I kind of went numb,” she said. She asked that her name not be used because she’s afraid of retaliation.

She was surprised initially to learn it was police who had shot and killed him.

“That shocked me that it was the police, at first … but then I thought about it,” Reinoehl’s sister said. “There was no way that the Michael I knew would have gone quietly, although that would have been the right thing to do.

“I really had hoped he was in custody, because if he was out there, with his history of acting first and rationalizing later, odds were he was going to get himself killed.”

Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock said Reinoehl was shot multiple times but he did not know how many.

Attorney General William P. Barr, in a statement Friday, said the streets are safer “with this violent agitator removed.”

His sister said she’s unsure what led her brother to Washington state, and wondered if he had a friend from his snowboarding tour days that lived in that area or if he “just went there because it was a place to go.” Reinoehl’s social media posts listed him as a professional snowboarder and construction worker.

After her brother was caught on widely circulated video and photos at Saturday’s shooting, his sister said she contacted Portland homicide detectives to let them know that the person in the footage was Reinoehl. Police have not reached out to her again, she said.

“I get it when you care about a cause. I understand it when you’ve got to make a stand, but bringing a gun to a protest, that’s setting yourself up to make a bad decision especially when you have a habit of acting on impulse,” she said.

Michael Reinoehl has two children, a son and a daughter. The daughter was with family Friday, but Reinoehl’s sister said no one knows where his teenage son is now.

Reinoehl had said on social media that he provided security for the city’s ongoing Black Lives Matter protests. In an interview with a freelance journalist published Thursday night by Vice News, Reinoehl admitted his involvement in the shooting, contending he had to act in self-defense because he didn’t know if he and a Black friend with him were going to be maced or stabbed.

Reinoehl’s sister said her brother “believed this country was already going to war, and he acted accordingly. Look where it got him. Two men dead and one of them is him.”

She shared that she fervently hopes his death doesn’t spark more violence.

“The peaceful majority can still talk things out and reason and find solutions,” she said. “When we were contacted by people filled with anger, we were able to deescalate the situation. No matter how angry they were, when you choose not to reflect back the anger that’s reflected on you, you can start a ripple of change that doesn’t rely on violence.

“I just hope my message gets through that peace is possible and don’t let the anger dividing this country tear us apart,” she said. “If you want to change the world, you need to be the change that you want to see.”

Reinoehl’s sister said she’s not angry at police. She believes officers wanted to put her brother in handcuffs and take him to jail.

“I think that was their intention. I don’t think that was Michael’s intention,” she said. “There’s only so much you can do with someone who doesn’t want to be taken in,” she said. “It wouldn’t be fair to blame them.”

https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2020/09/sister-of-portland-murder-suspect-michael-reinoehl-urges-peace-after-his-fatal-shooting-by-police-in-washington.html