The estate of Aaron “Jay” Danielson, who was murdered by ANTIFA militant activist Michael Reinoehl immediately after a pro-Trump rally, has filed a lawsuit against not only the city of Portland, but also the county district attorney and the mayor for negligence. They filed the suit in federal court on Friday and argued that Danielson would still be alive if the city had not taken a “hands-off approach” to political demonstrations and the counter-protests. Danielson’s estate is seeking $13 million in damages in total – $10 million in punitive damages, and $1.5 million apiece in both economic and non-economic damages.
They killed Danielson, 39, on August 29th, 2020 after he was allegedly stalked by Reinoehl.
“We are seeking justice for the preventable death of a young man, gunned down in a city with a dangerous and deadly hands-off approach to public safety. Time and time again, City leadership and law enforcement have failed to find an effective response to clashing groups of protesters,” estate attorney Christopher L. Cauble said in a statement.
Oregon Live reports, “The Danielson estate also accused Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt of playing a role by broadcasting last summer that he had adopted a new policy and generally wouldn’t pursue what he considered public order crimes such as criminal mischief, interfering with an officer or a stand-alone riot charge, and instead would focus on deliberate property damage and threats of force or actual force against others.”
One of the things that the suit is alleging is that the Rapid Response Team, which is responsible for crowd control, was actually no more than two blocks away from the shooting, but they were told to stand down from the dueling protests.
“Given the enormity of the press coverage over the past several years regarding clashes between left- and right-leaning protest groups in the downtown core of Portland, Defendants knew or should have known that violent clashes would occur,” Cauble wrote in that suit.
The police shot and killed Reinoehl after multiple law enforcement agencies went in to apprehend him for second-degree and unlawful use of a firearm.