Las Vegas Police Say ‘Sovereign Citizen’ Plot Is Stopped
LAS VEGAS — A sting operation stopped a plot to abduct, torture and kill police officers to bring attention to the anti-authority sovereign citizen movement, Las Vegas police said Thursday.
David Allen Brutsche and Devon Campbell Newman were arrested at an apartment a few miles off the Strip before they could carry out a plan to snatch officers, “put them on trial” and execute them in a vacant house, Las Vegas police Lt. James Seebock said.
Federal authorities regard sovereign citizen extremists as domestic terrorists. Authorities have linked sovereign citizen groups with violent confrontations in recent years, including deadly shootings in Louisiana and Arkansas.
Brutsche, 42, and Newman, 67, wanted to draw attention to the group’s rejection of governmental authority, making the case a domestic terrorism plot, Seebock said.
“They were furthering their sovereign citizen ideology by committing criminal acts toward law enforcement,” he said.
Brutsche and Newman were held in Clark County jail pending court appearances on charges including conspiracy to commit murder and attempted kidnapping.
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