(The involved agencies either did not respond to requests for comment or referred us to the U.S. Marshals, which did not respond to a request for comment. The law firm of a lawyer who represented the Reinoehl family but has since died also did not respond to Motherboard.)The documents obtained by Motherboard offer contradictory and troubling information. A key Marshals witness declined to speak to investigators. Mysterious evidence was sent anonymously to investigators months after the killing. The accounts of law enforcement personnel involved were baffling and at times inconsistent, not always squaring on questions as basic as whether Reinoehl was carrying a rifle or had shot at them. A former combat medic for the U.S. Army who witnessed the killing—and tried to keep children, including his own son, from being shot as police sprayed dozens of bullets—provided an account that countered official narratives, but the lead investigator in the case didn’t speak to him for a month and a half after the shooting. The documents show that it was unclear that anyone had tried to arrest Reinoehl before shooting (some witnesses insisted they heard nothing before the gunshots); that police disagreed about where and when they should attempt to arrest him; that police didn't announce themselves to Reinoehl until they could see "the white in the suspect's eyes"; and that their radios stopped working immediately before trying to arrest him. The Thurston County Sheriff's Office, which fielded 911 calls from witnesses, was unaware there was any police activity happening in their jurisdiction at all until they were already on the way to the scene.Do you know anything we should know? Contact the reporter at tim.marchman@vice.com.
LACEY, WA - SEPTEMBER 03: Investigators work near a tarpaulin covering the body of a man who is reportedly Michael Forest Reinoehl after he was shot and killed by law enforcement on September 3, 2020 in Lacey, Washington. Reinoehl was being investigated by law enforcement for his role in a fatal shooting at a pro-trump rally in Portland on Saturday. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
LACEY, WA - SEPTEMBER 03: Investigators work the scene at Tanglewilde Terrace where law enforcement shot and killed a man who is reportedly Michael Forest Reinoehl on September 3, 2020 in Lacey, Washington. Reinoehl was being investigated by law enforcement for his role in a fatal shooting at a pro-trump rally in Portland on Saturday. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
Via Thurston County Sheriff's Office