(PORTLAND, Wash.) — Police found clothing and ammunition connecting a suspect killed during an encounter with authorities Thursday to the death of a pro-Trump protester in Portland, Oregon, days earlier, officials said.
Michael Reinoehl, 48, was wanted for murder in the second degree with a firearm and unlawful use of a weapon with a firearm, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office said Friday, when he was located by the FBI and U.S. Marshals in Lacey, Washington.
The district attorney’s office was preparing to prove that Reinoehl intentionally killed 39-year-old Aaron Danielson during violent protests last weekend between a large caravan of pro-Trump supporters and Black Lives Matter protesters. On Friday, it released previously sealed evidence in its case, including the search warrant and arrest warrant affidavits for Reinoehl.
Reinoehl was under surveillance Thursday night when he left an apartment and got into a vehicle, officials said. When officers tried to stop the vehicle, shots were fired and the suspect was killed. Reinoehl allegedly pulled a gun, a law enforcement official told ABC News. There were no other injuries, officials said.
During the execution of a search warrant issued Thursday for Reinoehl’s residence, Portland police recovered clothing that matched what he was wearing on Aug. 29, at the time of Danielson’s death, according to the district attorney. They also found ammunition that matched the ballistic evidence recovered from the crime scene, authorities said.
The shooting death of Reinoehl is still being investigated, said Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt, who did not share more details on the incident.
“We still do not have a full understanding of what led to the death of Michael Forest Reinoehl,” Schmidt said in a statement.
“The apprehension of a fugitive, in particular one under investigation for murder, is especially dangerous for law enforcement,” he continued. “I am thankful that no one else was injured or killed during last night’s incident in Lacey, Washington, and I appreciate the coordination between law enforcement agencies throughout this investigation.”
(NEW YORK) — Health experts are pleading with the American public to be vigilant during the upcoming Labor Day weekend to prevent a repeat of the increase in COVID-19 cases that followed the Memorial Day and the Fourth of July holidays.
“We don’t want to see a repeat of the surges we’ve seen following holiday weekends,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, during an interview with CNN on Thursday. “That doesn’t mean you have to lock yourself in a room and not enjoy what hopefully will be a nice weekend for people, but there are certain fundamental things that you can do and still enjoy yourself.”
Large social gatherings, crowded venues, juxtaposed to the highly infectious virus, have proven to result in a widespread escalation of metrics across the country.
Memorial Day appeared to be the first domino of the summer surge, setting off an influx of cases across many states in the following weeks and months.
On May 25, Memorial Day, the national seven-day average of new cases was 21,955. Five weeks later, on June 29, the seven-day average jumped to 40,178, an 83% increase in new cases, according to an ABC analysis of data compiled by the COVID Tracking Project, and from where the below data is cited.
In the weeks following the holiday, the South saw a rise in its COVID-19 metrics and on May 25, reported an average of 7,641 new daily cases. A month later, that number had increased by 126%.
A similar pattern occurred just over a month later following the Fourth of July weekend.
Just two weeks after July 4, the U.S. hit a record high of 76,844 daily cases, and a seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases had risen by nearly 40%. By July 23, current hospitalizations hit a near-record high of 59,720 — an increase of 56.6%.
Eight weeks after Memorial Day, and three weeks after the Fourth of July, cases peaked in the South, with a seven-day average of new cases standing at 39,587, an increase of nearly 418% from May 25.
Death metrics, which tend to lag behind other COVID-19 metrics, soon increased in the weeks following the early summer holidays.
On July 4, the seven-day average of deaths stood at 500. Aug. 12, approximately five weeks after the holiday, marked the deadliest day of reported COVID-19 deaths, this summer, with 1,517 deaths reported. In August alone, there were 21 days with over 1,000 deaths reported, and 30,000 deaths were reported in total.
According to Fauci, the American public’s behavior over the Labor Day holiday is critical to dictating what the course of the virus will be this fall.
“We don’t want to see a surge under any circumstances. But particularly as we go on the other side of Labor Day and enter into the fall … we don’t want to go into that with another surge that we have to turn around again,” he said.
Such an uptick would be particularly worrisome, with winter approaching and people congregating inside, leading to potential spikes in infections.
“We’re going into fall with a lot more disease than we entered summer,” Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, wrote in a series of tweets on Thursday.
“Starting at a baseline of 40,000 daily cases is a bit of a disaster, and no; vaccine on Oct. 22 won’t bail us out,” he added.
At its peak in July, the U.S. reported a seven-day average of approximately 66,000 daily cases.
Although testing has increased substantially since the beginning of the summer, new cases and national testing has dropped by nearly 39% and 12.6% respectively, since the end of July. However, heading into the holiday weekend, a number of states are exhibiting concerning COVID-19 trends.
According to an ABC News analysis of data, compiled by the New York Times, the number of states reporting an increasing new case trend appears to be going up. Three weeks ago, only five states and Puerto Rico were reporting increasing new case trends. Since then, that metric has doubled, with 18 states reporting increasing new case trends.
The Midwest, in particular, continues to be a concern.
“There are several states that are at risk for surging, namely North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Arkansas, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois,” Fauci said in an interview with Bloomberg this week.
Seven-day averages of the rate of positivity have risen over the last two weeks in 11 Midwestern states.
In addition, Montana, North and South Dakota, Michigan, Minnesota, and Missouri have all recently reported an uptick in infections among young people between the ages of 18-25.
Missouri has also reported nine consecutive days with over 1,000 cases and the seven-day average of new cases in South Dakota has increased by 149% over the last two weeks.
It is essential for Americans to scrupulously follow social distancing guidelines, wear masks and avoid crowds. “If we’re careless about it, then we could wind up with a surge following Labor Day,” Fauci added. “It really depends on how we behave as a country.”
(NEW YORK) — Over 48 million Americans in the West are bracing for a dangerous heat wave that will last through the holiday weekend.
Numerous record high temperatures are possible this weekend from California to Washington. High temperatures will reach the triple digits in Los Angeles on Sunday.
The last time downtown Los Angeles reached a high temperature of 100 degrees or higher was on July 7, 2018.
Elsewhere, the weather is pretty quiet for Saturday across the country. However, during the overnight hours Saturday to the early morning hours Sunday, a front will pass through portions of Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois, triggering some thunderstorms.
Some of the thunderstorms moving through the area could have gusty winds and small hail. Storms should roll through Chicago just before 7 a.m. local time on Sunday.
By Labor Day, the quick-moving system could squeeze out a few showers and thunderstorms across the Great Lakes and into the Ohio Valley.
And as summer is winding down, a low-pressure system dives southward Monday afternoon and evening, producing rain and snow for the Rockies.
Accumulating snowfall is possible in Wyoming and Colorado Monday into Tuesday. It’s not out of the question to see 6 inches of snow in the highest elevations, however places like Denver and Boulder, Colorado, won’t see more than a trace of slushy snow before it gets washed away by rain.
The last time Pueblo, Colorado, saw accumulating snow in September was Sept. 27, 1996, when 0.8 inches was recorded.
The earliest snowfall on record in Denver occurred on Sept. 3, 1961, when 4.2 inches was measured. On Monday, Denver’s high is forecast to be 88 degrees, the next day snow is in the forecast.
(NEW YORK) — Joe Prude said learning that seven police officers involved in his brother’s death were suspended brought immediate “relief for me and the family.”
“This is the moment that I’ve been waiting to see and dying to see,” Prude, Rochester, New York, said. “I got it. Now all I’m waiting on is to see [the] people get prosecuted to the fullest of the law.”
Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren announced the officers’ paid suspensions on Thursday. Daniel Prude died in police custody in March after being restrained during a mental health emergency.
Prude said that the past six months without his brother have been filled with loneliness, emptiness, sadness, hurt and anger.
“There’s so much, you know what I mean. I just can’t round it up into one statement,” said Prude. “[He] was connected to my hip.”
On March 23, officers responded to a 911 call made by Prude’s family after they said he was going through a mental health issue. The disturbing body camera footage first obtained by the Democrat and Chronicle on Wednesday showed several officers approaching Prude, 41, who was naked and kneeling on the cold street.
In the video, Prude appears to comply with the officers’ orders and questions as they place him in handcuffs. He then begins to shout and spit at the officers, who then placed a spit bag over his head, the video shows.
“That horrific moment was something that I won’t wish upon nobody to see. Don’t no family member deserve to see their family member there being tortured like that,” Prude told ABC News.
Elliot Shield, the attorney representing the Prude family, said the family intends to sue “everyone responsible for Daniel’s death.”
“This incident is only coming to light right now because we requested the body camera footage and all of the police reports under New York’s Freedom of Information law,” said Shield.
He added that they finally obtained the video once police released it to the public, after months of delay.
Protests began outside the Rochester police station on Wednesday and calls for justice have since spread across the country.
“Well, what I want people to know about him is that he was a good brother. He was a good son. He was a good uncle. You know… charismatic guy,” said Prude.
“These people [were] out here peaceful[ly] protesting on my brother’s behalf and I appreciate their time,” he added. “I appreciate their compassion.”
ABC News’ Ivan Pereira, Rachel Katz and Cheryl Gendron contributed to this report.
Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesBy QUINN OWEN, ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement this week announced the end of a series of nationally coordinated arrests that resulted in more than 2,000 immigrants taken into custody.
The vast majority of those arrested had a prior criminal charge or conviction while 15% did not. Assault and domestic violence topped the list of charges and convictions held by those arrested. The agency tallied the data as individual charges and convictions, meaning a single person could have more than one.
The nationally coordinated operations were run out of all 24 national ICE field offices. Eighty-three people were arrested in New York City, 77 arrests were made in New Jersey, 67 in Phoenix and more than 300 were made in Los Angeles.
ICE made 2,536 at-large or community arrests from the beginning of July through Aug. 22, according to the latest stats provided by the agency.
The arrests came despite limits on ICE operations due to the coronavirus pandemic. So far this budget year, ICE has made 94,490 arrests overall compared to 143,099 arrests in the same time last year.
Henry Lucero, the head of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, said noncriminal immigration violators could have been targeted by ICE if they had repeated violations or a deportation order.
“That’s really a variety of cases that may have been targeted during this operation because we had a viable lead,” Lucero said. “It also could mean that we were targeting individuals that were part of this operation and came across others.”
Lucero said agents have been working under new protective equipment protocols and providing masks and gloves to those arrested. The operation required ICE to redirect and focus other department resources on the targeted removal operations. The agency announced in March that the coronavirus crisis required it to focus on criminal targets.
“We never said we were going to stop arresting individuals,” Lucero told reporters on Tuesday. “We said we were going to prioritize and focus on those who were public safety threats and that’s exactly what we did during this operation.”
The pandemic also forced the agency to significantly reduce the number of detainees it holds in custody. The average number of immigrants held at the civil detention facilities was just over 20,000 at the end of August, compared to just over 50,000 last year. More than 5,400 detainees have tested positive for COVID-19 and six have died after contracting the virus, according to ICE statistics.
Nathan Howard/Getty ImagesBY: MEREDITH DELISO, ABC NEWS 
