Michael Reinoehl was a mentally disturbed individual.  His family had been estranged from him for more than three years.  His sister described him as having a temper, behaving irrationally, and that he would not be able to deal with the intense situations such as those at the nightly Antifa/BLM protests where he claimed to provide “Security” for protesters.

At some point this week Reinoehl made contact with Portland independent journalist — that’s a euphemism for not having a job —  Donovan Farley and agreed to an interview.  Farley contacted Vice News, who sent two camera crews to record the interview for broadcast tonight.

Sometime during the day on Thursday a Judge in Portland signed a warrant for Reinoehl’s arrest.  It’s quite possible that Reinoehl’s videotaped admission that he was the shooter solved a prosecution problem of having a witness who could identify him as the shooter.  The video shows someone dressed in the same manner Reinoehl was dressed earlier in the evening, but so far there has been no public disclosure that anyone at the scene of the shooting had positively identified Reinoelh as having fired the fatal shots — that is until Reinoehl himself confirmed it to Farley.

Based on reports of witnesses at the location, an SUV had been parked on the street of the apartment building where Reinoehl turned out to be staying.  When Reinoehl was observed leaving the apartment and getting into a vehicle, the SUV and another vehicle converged on Reinoehl’s vehicle, and he exited with an assault-style rifle and began firing on the officers.  They returned fire — as many as 40-50 rounds were heard according to witnesses — and Reinoehl was killed.

At nearly the same time this was taking place, Vice News was broadcasting the interview.  A clearly delusional and disturbed Reinoehl made the following claims during the interview:

“I felt that my life, and other peoples lives around me were in danger.”

“I felt like I had no choice but to do what I did.”

“Security may be needed.”

“I had no idea what I was going into.”

“Every time I see a big truck, especially with a flag on it, I immediately think they are out to get me.”

“I saw more of their vehicles than real citizen vehicles.  It felt like the beginning of a war.”

“It was a free-for-all and the police were letting it happen.”

“I realized what had happened.  I was confident I did not hit anyone innocent. And I made my exit.”

“Totally justified.  Had I not acted I am confident that my friend and I would have been killed because I wasn’t going to stand there and let something happen…..”

There is a clear EDIT at this point.  They are shooting with more than one camera, and there is an edit here that is unmistakable as they edited out what the said next, and then skipped ahead.

In this same segment of the interview, Reinoelh repeatedly uses “they” with respect to things being said in the aftermath of the shooting.  He never clarified who he is talking about.  Press?  Police?  Political opposition?  It’s a pretty clear indication of paranoia, consistent with his earlier statement that people in big trucks were out to get him.

“I’m, 100% anti-fascist.  I’m not a member of “Antifa.”  I’m not a member of anything.”

“Honestly, I hate to say it, but I see a civil war right around the corner.”

“That shot felt like the beginning of a war.”

Michael Reinoehl had delusions of grandeur from his psychosis.  The rioting and his role as “security” gave him a sense of self-importance.  He believed a civil war was imminent and he was destined to play a role.  The people with trucks were out to get him.  The people with trucks weren’t real citizens.

He fired the first shot when he killed Aaron Danielson — who was just walking down a Portland street wearing a hat that Micheal Reinoehl objected to.

Nothing Reinoehl said in the televised interview supported in any way a claim of “self-defense.”

Most noteworthy are his first two comments:

“I felt that my life, and other peoples lives around me were in danger.”

“I felt like I had no choice but to do what I did.”

Right there he’s just repeating words he read on the internet.  Those are the “magic words” that formulate a “self-defense” claim.  It’s all well and good to say them, but it’s meaningless to do so when nothing about the facts of the event support the claim.  In fact, when a defendant makes that error, he opens himself up to a line of attack involving what’s called “false exculpatory statements.”  That simply means “lies” asserting non-involvement or “non-criminality.”

The video shows Reinoelm crossing the street from left to right in the seconds before the shooting.  It shows a second person crossing from right to left on a skateboard.

The victim and one other person are walking toward the camera when they approach no closer than about 10 feet from Reinoehl.  Someone calls out “Hey, there are two of them over here.”  Reinoehl stops in the street, turns to his left, and fires almost immediately.  There is a spray of what a bystander described as bear mace, but it’s impossible to know from the video if the shot is fired in response to the bear mace, or the bear mace is deployed in response to the Reinoehl aiming a handgun.

But there is literally no time for Reinoehl to be considering what it is Reinoehl claimed in the interview that he was considering — that the individuals walking towards him were about to kill him and a second person.  Reinoehl doesn’t say, and it’s not clear from the video who he’s referring to — the only other person in the vicinity is the person on the skateboard coming from the opposite side of the street that Reinoehl is coming from — they were not together.

Everything about Reinoehl’s interview and his extensive social media presence makes it very clear what the prosecution theory would have been — Reinoehl was leading an aimless and empty life and spent his nights for the last three months looking for trouble.  His attendance at the riots gave him a sense of self-importance, and gave his otherwise empty life a sense of purpose and meaning.

He was security.  He was important.  He was a protector.

It made him feel like he was somebody in this world, when in reality he knew in his mind that he really wasn’t.

He found a way to solve that dilemma by acting out the fantasy playing in his head.  He was going to play a key role in starting a civil war.

He was going to fire the first shot.

Aaron Danielson, a resident of Portland who had every right to walk down that Portland street at night wearing whatever hat he wanted to wear, happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when Reinoehl allowed his delusions to overtake reality.

He’s emblematic of the moronic views of BLM and Antifa that their pathetic shield walls, fireworks, bullhorns, and frozen water bottles are a means to accomplishing anything.

It makes them feel important.  It makes them feel like they have purpose and meaning.

But they are really just fooling themselves and hiding from the fact that most of the rest of the world is laughing at them for being so self-absorbed to not realize how stupid they look.

Watch the video of Reinoelh again.

That is the face of “Stupid”.