FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task used Oregon’s new red flag law to temporarily confiscate an ex-marine’s guns and had him committed to a veteran’s hospital after he stood outside the Portland mayor’s home on July 20 warning over a loudspeaker he has a plan to wipe out Antifa.
The step was taken to prevent him from joining a right-wing rally and counter-protests planned for Aug. 17 in downtown Portland. Authorities were worried that the clashes would turn violent. The ex-marine returned home from the hospital on Tuesday.
“If antifa gets to the point where they start killing us, I’m going to kill them next,” said Kohfield. “I’d slaughter them and I have a detailed plan on how I would wipe out antifa.”
This threat led the FBI to use Oregon’s new Red Flag Law, also called the Extreme Risk Protection Order to temporarily seize his cache of firearms.
FBI moved Kohfield to a veteran’s hospital in Portland where he spent the next 20 days. Oregonian says this prevented him from participating in the right-wing rally on Aug. 17 that had attracted counter-protests.
Kohfield who had served two tours in Iraq was not charged with any crime but was prevented from attending the rally as he had earlier threated to “slaughter” Antifa.
The Oregon Department of Justice says that Oregon’s new Reg Flag Gun law requires a simple process.
Kohfield whose medical records say that he suffers from bipolar and post-traumatic stress disorder, upon his return told Oregonian that he had no intention to hurt anyone. He said he understands why the police dealt with him the way they did.
“I looked unhinged. I looked dangerous and have the training to be dangerous,” he said.
He mentioned that by warning Antifa on the loudspeaker he was trying to keep others away from violence.
“I figured that the key to de-escalating the situation was to not be the most violent person in the room,” he said. “It was to be the scariest person in the room.”
The FBI was already monitoring Kohfield because in March he had written a five-page letter to Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a first-term Republican congressman, and former Navy Seal, accusing the Portland’s mayor and police of allowing the Antifa attacks against conservatives.
He had mentioned that the masked Antifa protestors had assaulted him during a November rally and in his letter, he wrote to Crenshaw requesting Congress declare Antifa a terrorist organization.
In a Facebook post, Kohfield, mentions that he never told police that he wanted to harm Antifa.
“The only thing I said was I have no desire to harm anyone, I just don’t want people I love, killing people that I love,” he wrote on Facebook on Sunday, along with a copy of his medical records.