A man admitted in an interview with VICE News Thursday that he killed a Trump supporter in Portland last weekend, but said he was acting to protect the life of a friend.
Michael Forest Reinoehl has been identified by news accounts as the person Portland police believe to be involved in the killing of Aaron Danielson, a member of the Patriot Prayer outfit that conducted a car caravan through the city on Saturday.
He has not been charged, but told VICE he wanted to get his story out.
“I had no choice. I mean, I had a choice. I could have sat there and watched them kill a friend of mine of color. But I wasn’t going to do that,” he said in a brief snippet of the interview. The full interview will air later Thursday.
Patriot Prayer members said Danielson was “executed” by the antifa and Black Lives Matters movements, which have been demonstrating in Portland for more than three months, with violent attacks on police and federal and local buildings.
Mr. Reinoehl has identified himself as “100% antifa.”
He claimed he was shot during earlier summer protests when he grabbed a gun from a white person he said was fighting a group of black teens.
Mr. Reinoehl was also cited for having a loaded gun in public earlier in July, though that charge was later dropped.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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