Police clashed with rioters blending in with Black Lives Matter protesters outside the White House and on BLM Plaza for the second night in a row as mobs shined torches into homes in DC and demanded residents ‘get out onto the street,’ Your Content can report.
Washington DC saw violent protests in the weeks following police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota back in May, and the chaos re-erupted on Thursday, the final night of the Republican National convention, when six officers were hospitalized in demonstrations across the city.
The unrest continued into Sunday night, with a group of heavily armored officers seen moving in on a hundred-strong crowd of protesters gathered at Black Lives Matter Plaza shortly before midnight.
Video showed a large crowd marching through the Logan Circle neighborhood, letting off fireworks while banging drums and shouting through a loudspeaker.
Flashlights and what appeared to be a laser pointer were also shone through the windows of nearby houses, along with chants of “out of your homes and into the streets.”
Protesters had earlier stopped outside the La Diplomate restaurant while shouting similar chats at diners. Restaurant staff served them water before they continued along their route.
Marchers had gathered close to the Penumbra Kelly Building, which houses the city’s crime prevention unit and has been repeatedly targeted, before the gathering was declared illegal.
Police used loudspeakers to warn the crowd to disperse as projectiles were thrown at them, before repeatedly charging the crowd with a number of people arrested, according to KATU.
Cars that had been used to block the street for a short time were also towed away.
The protests come after Aaron ‘Jay’ Danielson, a member of the pro-Trump Patriot Prayer non-violent Catholic organization, was shot dead during riots in the city.
Your Content readers were first to exclusively learn police are thought to be investigating 48-year-old Michael Forest Reinoehl — who described himself on Instagram as ‘100% ANTIFA’ — in relation to the shooting.
Reinoehl is a former member of the military who is now a professional snowboarder and has been a frequent attendee of protests in Portland, according to The Oregonian.
He was previously accused of carrying a loaded gun to another demonstration, the paper reports.
In Washington, officers used tear gas to disperse the crowd, some of whom were wielding homemade shields.
Reinoehl was raised in Sandy and has had recent addresses in Northeast Portland, Gresham and Clackamas. He described himself on social media and in a video interview with Bloomberg QuickTake News as a professional snowboarder and contractor who has former military experience but “hated” his time in the army.
President Trump retweeted the victim’s name and wrote, ‘Rest in peace Jay!’ afterwards. On Monday morning, he also threatened to send in the National Guard.
‘Portland is a mess, and it has been for many years. If this joke of a mayor doesn’t clean it up, we will go in and do it for them!’ he wrote.
He also tweeted: ‘The Radical Left Mayors & Governors of Cities where this crazy violence is taking place have lost control of their “movement”. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, but the Anarchists & Agitators got carried away and don’t listen anymore – even force Slow Joe out of basement!’
Reinoehl has not been charged nor have police commented on his connection to Saturday night’s violence but his relatives also told the local newspaper that he was the person in a video of running away from where Aaron Jay Danielson, a supporter of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer, had been shot dead.