Idaho Suspected ‘Sovereign’ Arrested After Nationwide Manhunt
Idaho Suspected ‘Sovereign’ Arrested After Nationwide Manhunt
A kidnapping suspect with suspected extremist connections and a history of assaulting police was arrested Wednesday after attempting to hijack a tractor-trailer rig at a truck stop in Bismarck, N.D.
Mitchell L. Walck, wanted for shooting at an Idaho state trooper last weekend and later kidnapping a North Idaho woman, hid in the sleeper cab of the parked truck in Bismarck and pointed a handgun at its driver when he returned to the rig.
The truck driver ran from the rig and called 911, as did another eyewitness, telling responding officers that Walck had run from the truck stop to a nearby mobile home park, Bismarck Police Sgt. Mark Buschena told Hatewatch today.
The 57-year-old fugitive was arrested at gunpoint without incident by five Bismarck police officers and a North Dakota trooper who surrounded the mobile home park and found Walck hiding under a pine tree, Buschena said.
The incident may have ended peacefully because the 9 mm handgun Walck was carrying in his waistband was not loaded.
Walck, a Pennsylvania native, has expressed antigovernment views similar to those held by adherents to the “sovereign citizens” movement and has served prison time for assaulting a police officer. Extremists from that movement have had numerous run-ins with police in recent years, often because they have invalid driver’s licenses or vehicle registrations. Two West Memphis, Ark., officers were killed by a father-son team of sovereigns during a traffic stop in May 2010. Personal writings found in a briefcase in a stolen truck last weekend contained antigovernment rants, including references to federal sieges in the 1990s at Waco and Ruby Ridge, authorities say.