Reinoehl “attempted to escape arrest and produced a firearm” before he was killed by law enforcement, Attorney General Barr revealed in a statement released on Friday, confirming initial reports of what happened Thursday night when a fugitive task force swept in to arrest him in Lacey, Washington. The self-professed Antifa member, suspected of killing Patriot Prayer “friend and supporter” Aaron ‘Jay’ Danielson during a riot last Saturday in Portland, had fled across the border from Oregon after local cops secured a warrant for his arrest.

Describing Reinoehl as a “dangerous fugitive, admitted Antifa member, and suspected murderer,” Barr congratulated the officers on “prevent[ing] him from escaping justice,” declaring “the streets of our cities are safer with this violent agitator removed.” Tracking and taking down the alleged killer were, according to the attorney general, “an unmistakable demonstration that the United States will be governed by law, not violent mobs.”

Many on social media were appalled at the tone of Barr’s statement, excoriating the AG for his “vigilantism.”