After a Saturday memorial in downtown Vancouver, Washington, for Aaron "Jay" Danielson — the police and Patriot Prayer supporter who was fatally shot by an avowed Antifa militant after a recent rally backing President Donald Trump — authorities said a man allegedly followed mourners who had been attending the memorial, the Columbian reported.
The mourners ended up at Charlie's Bar & Grill — and the man who allegedly followed them was in the bar, too, and began recording them with his phone, police told the paper.
Image source: YouTube screenshot
What happened next?
Rex Fergus — a member of the group that went to the bar following Danielson's memorial — told KPTV-TV that the man was causing problems.
"He came into the bar and immediately was aggressive with everyone that was in the bar," Fergus noted to the station. "He was aggressive with the bouncer, he was aggressive with everyone that he came into contact with. He came into the bar, immediately pulled his phone out, and started coming over to our tables and putting his phone in our faces."
The man left the bar after "contact with security staff," KPTV said, citing police. The mourners also went outside, the station said.
And at about 7 p.m., police said the man who'd been causing trouble got into his vehicle, drove toward and hit a member of the group, then fled from the parking lot, detectives told the Columbian.
The victim's injuries were described as non-life-threatening, officers told KPTV, adding that he was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Who is the suspect?
Charles R. Holliday-Smith, 30, turned himself into police and was booked into jail, police told the station Monday night. He faces charges including assault in the first degree and felony hit-and-run, KPTV added.
While police told the Columbian the suspect allegedly followed the mourners after the memorial service, police added to the paper that investigators couldn't confirm reports circulating that the suspect and victim were part of activist groups confronting each other.
Anything more on the victim?
Police did not identify the man struck by the vehicle, the Columbian said — but a GoFundMe page identified the victim as Shane Moon and noted that he was at a bar after leaving a celebration of life of a friend and was struck by a truck in the parking lot. Fergus in his interview with KPTV also identified the victim as "Shane."
Fergus also told the station that the victim was among several people from the group who were taking pictures of the suspect in the parking lot "in case anything happened."
More from the paper:
The GoFundMe page made no mention of the confrontation or whether Moon was affiliated with any activist group, though several donors left comments describing him as a "patriot" and criticizing Antifa. Posts on social media said that Moon had been at the Saturday evening memorial in downtown Vancouver for Danielson.
An administrator for the page confirmed later via email that Moon had attended the memorial for Danielson. The email said Moon is from the Vancouver area.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the fundraiser garnered just over $12,000 of its $25,000 goal.
The following WPTV report aired before the suspect turned himself in:
What's the background?
Danielson — the focal point of the Vancouver memorial — was fatally shot Aug. 29 after a Portland pro-Trump rally that attracted a ton of pushback from leftists.
While the likes of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden suggested that Danielson was killed because his fellow Trump supporters were "inciting responses," the Multnomah County district attorney's office released unsealed court documents last week that suggest the alleged shooter — Michael Forest Reinoehl — targeted Danielson before shots were fired.
In the below image, Reinoehl can be seen on the right:
Reinoehl — who had described himself as "100% Antifa" — was fatally shot by law enforcement agents who came to arrest him in Washington state Thursday after several days of investigations.
Oddly, Facebook answered all of this by reportedly taking down Patriot Prayer's group page as well as the page of its founder, Joey Gibson.
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