In a new court filing, prosecutors allege that Hutaree leader David Stone and other members of the Christian militia held a February live fire training session in which they discussed “ambushing police officers, killing police officers during traffic stops, torching the homes of police officers and then shooting them and their families as they fled their burning homes.”
Nine alleged Hutaree members are charged on various counts in an alleged plot to kill police. The new filing argues against bail for Stone.
Prosecutors allege Stone led a discussion in January planning for an April “operation” — which authorities feared could target police — in which outsiders who stumbled on the session would be put “on the ground.”
“We are going locked and loaded. Radios will be up all the time. If you’re made, somebody comes tripping along, they just happen to see you, we’re gonna handle it as a hostile situation. That means you put them on the ground. Either putting bullets in them, or if they just willingly get down on the ground, and let you leave the area peacefully, great,” Stone said, according to the filing.
In a separate development, alleged Hutaree member Kristopher Sickles told the AP in an interview from jail that he never heard specific plans to overthrow the government, and that he did not plan to attend the April operation:
“Basically, the idea of the opp was to remain stealthy, to not be discovered,” Sickles said. “And that if they did run across someone — and that basically if they weren’t willing to work with them, as they put it — they would basically put them down.”
Sickles said he would have contacted authorities if he found out April training had become violent.
