Is it a sign of things escalating? Perhaps. We prefer to see it as the fash reading the handwriting on the wall. Mike can sleep knowing we got this.

“I had no choice. I mean, I, 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,” Mike Reinoehl explained in an interview he gave to Vice about why he gunned down an associate of Patriot Prayer. Later he will say that he felt a civil war was coming and he might have fired the first shot of that war.

On Thursday, within hours of Vice publishing the story, Reinoehl, 48, was killed as a federal task force attempted to apprehend him near Lacey, Washington, 120 miles outside of Portland. They say he had a gun and tried to use it against them, but after weeks of protests and unrest in Portland, particularly against federal officers during almost the entire month of July, many are suspicious of that explanation, some even calling it a flat-out execution.

All we have so far are ambiguous and unreliable police reports on the shooting (execution?) of Michael Reinoehl.

Journalists should make it clear we have no idea what happened, before reporting what the cops say.

I mean, do we ever learn?

— Dan Froomkin/PressWatchers.org (@froomkin) September 4, 2020

As people in Portland gear up for September to continue the series of protests and unrest that has rocked the city for well over three years, with the ones since the George Floyd killing in Minneapolis getting the most national attention, they do so facing an escalation that leaves many unsure of what will come. What is known however, is that what might have had Reinoehl fear for his safety and the safety of his friend enough to shoot and kill Patriot Prayer associate  Aaron “Jay Bishop” Danielson, 39, was the major part of that escalation: the right wing physical assault on the city that many feel has gone unchecked for over three years, and even perceived to be assisted by local law enforcement and Mayor Ted Wheeler. Just over a month ago, comedian John Oliver took note of this on his HBO program, curiously being the only one at the time to look past the federal officers sent to the city by Donald Trump and to the climate created by Wheeler and the Portland Police Bureau (PPB). “The local police force—under the leadership of Ted Wheeler, incidentally—have routinely overreacted, using things like tear gas to the point where Wheeler actually became known as Tear Gas Teddy, which I guarantee you is set to be this Christmas’ worst-selling toy,” Oliver said while showing a graphic of a plush bear with a gas mask on and a canister of Mace in one of its paws.

On Saturday, a ”Trump 2020 Cruise Rally” was held where Trump supporters drove in a caravan that began approximately ten miles southeast of Portland. Aware of the caravan, according to Vice contributor Tess Owen, Portland police were supposed to keep the caravan away from the downtown area to prevent escalating tensions from the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests that have been taking place over the summer. Danielson was part of a group that broke away from the caravan to head downtown to attack BLM protesters with bear mace and paintball. Video of the shooting looks to show Danielson spraying something just before two shots rang out. Ironically as he lay dying, it was BLM and antifa that came to his aid. One of the protesters, a Black woman, attempted to tend to him, but was shoved away by police.

A Black woman protestor/medic tried 2 help the Trump guy who died by gunfire last night, but the cops don't trust any of the antifascist ppl, so she was pushed aside until the ambulance came. She did everything she could have, and more than many people would. #portlandshooting pic.twitter.com/WVl1abr5Tq

— Elle Stanger (@ElleStanger) August 31, 2020

Patriot Prayer has a particularly sorrid history of political violence in Portland to the point that its founder and leader Josh Gibson is facing lawsuits for his activities and several of his associates have been arrested in just the past few weeks alone, most notably Proud Boy Tusitala “Tiny” Toese who was on probation from past assaults, only to engage in another at the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) in Seattle, Washington and protests in Portland, which was a violation of his probation, and was doing so while a fugitive. Despite the fact that police saw him at the protest, it took an outcry to arrest him later. Conservative propagandist Andy Ngo is a frequent associate of Patriot Prayer.

Media reports have curiously avoided mentioning Patriot Prayer, and particularly its violent history and ties to White nationalism except in passing in relation to Danielson. The New York Times referred to him as “a man affiliated with a right-wing group,” later mentioning Patriot Prayer only as “a local group that says it promotes Christianity and smaller government.”

don't let anyone whitewash @PatriotPrayerUS – it's steeped in hardcore nazi shit. https://t.co/hdMbluZbqG

— haha soup wow (@cartracers) September 4, 2020

Danielson’s death is being considered the first attributed to an antifascist in 27 years, the last one also occurring in Portland on New Year’s Day, 1993 when Eric Banks, the lead singer of the neo-Nazi band Bound for Glory, was shot dead by an associate of Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice.