Rei Reynosa was named by the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s office as the wrong-way Milwaukee freeway driver who killed Christopher Van Cleve on I-94. His Facebook page indicates he was an anti-police protester from Kenosha.
Reynosa posted about Antifa on his page; in 2021, he posted a graphic that read, “sometimes antisocial, always antifascist.”
On June 17, 2023, a sheriff’s detective reported the death of Rei A. W. Reynosa, 36, of Kenosha, Wisconsin, according to the medical examiner’s report, which says that Rei Reynosa was the wrong-way driver of a vehicle that struck Van Cleve’s car head-on on the I-94.
Christopher Van Cleve, 46, was from Milwaukee, the medical examiner’s reports say. He was pinned in the driver’s seat, the report says. The report says that Van Cleve was driving eastbound on I-94 when he was struck by Rei Reynosa, who was traveling west in the eastbound lane. A photo of the victim, who was single, could not immediately be found.
On Facebook, Rei Reynosa went by the name Rogue Rei Reynosa. “Maker. Artist. Lover of all things weird. Dancer to his own drum beat. An uncontrollable fire,” his page says. His top posts are about the Tyre Nichols police-related death in Memphis.
Many of his posts related to police-related shootings. “This is Amerikkka 2020, still not mad?” he wrote. He wrote multiple posts relating to livestreams and protesting in Kenosha after the police shooting of Jacob Blake, which was ruled justified self-defense by a Democratic district attorney. “We’re back with the extension of the broadcast. Kenosha,wi august 26th, 2020,” read one. He also wrote posts critical of Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted by a jury.
Of Blake, Rei Reynosa wrote, “I am beyond words, with sorrow for this man’s family. He DID NOT deserve that, at all! I’ve never been a fan of KPD, but they really have outdone themselves, this time…We all know how this one is gonna play out, still feel like sitting still?” In June 2020, he wrote, “My dad, watched a guy in a construction truck, drop off a pallet of bricks, in the small town where his business is. He himself, said it was peculiar, because there was no construction on sight -where the pallet of bricks were dropped off and left unattended. Keep your eyes peeled for agitators, let’s make this a peaceful movement. They will thwart us, if we’re violent. That’s what they want. Let the voice of the people be heard, not by violence, but by our peaceful unified actions!”
“The driver of the vehicle that was struck by the decedent was extricated and died on scene,” the Milwaukee County medical examiner’s report says. Authorities began receiving 911 calls about a “wrong-way driver on Interstate 94” around 2:35 a.m. June 17, 2023, the report says.
The callers reported a crash at I-94 and North 32nd Street. “A vehicle traveling westbound in the Eastbound lanes of I-94 struck another vehicle head-on,” the report says. “Both vehicles had extensive front end damage. The posted speed limit in the area was 50-MPH. It was unknown if speed and/or alcohol were contributory factors in this accident.”
Rei Reynosa was driving a Red Jeep Cherokee and Christopher Van Cleve was in a 2004 Toyota Corolla, the report says, adding that both vehicles had “extensive damage to the front ends.”
Reynosa had criminal convictions for disorderly conduct (domestic violence), criminal damage to property, and a forfeiture for drug paraphernalia, court records show. He also had operated a motor vehicle without a valid license.
