Federal Government: Militia Leader Told Members To Be Ready To Kill

DETROIT (AP) – The leader of a Christian militia planned an elaborate, two-part training session for this month and told members it was OK to kill “anyone who might stumble upon the operation,” federal prosecutors wrote in a court filing Friday.

Details about the Hutaree’s planned training session—to be held during the second and fourth Saturdays in April—were revealed a 17-page document prosecutors filed in response to a defense motion to free Hutaree leader David Stone while he awaits trial.

It, along with several other government filings over the past week, help paint a fuller picture of the southern Michigan-based group’s make-up and activities.

Stone and eight other suspected Hutaree members were arrested after a series of raids across the Midwest late last month and charged with seditious conspiracy, or plotting to levy war against the U.S. The self-proclaimed “Christian warriors” trained in paramilitary techniques in preparation for a battle against the Antichrist.

Friday’s filing included a transcript of remarks Stone allegedly made during a January briefing on the planned operation.

According to the filing, Stone told other Hutaree members that “we are going locked and loaded.”

“If you’re made, somebody comes tripping along, they just happen to see you, we’re gonna handle it as a hostile situation,” Stone said. “That means you put them on the ground.”

Andrew Arena, the head of the FBI in Detroit, has said his office felt compelled to arrest the nine suspects before the April training session because of the potential for violence.

Stone’s lawyer, William Swor, said he hadn’t seen the latest filing but doesn’t see any reason why his client should be jailed.

“The government hasn’t proved that he shouldn’t be free,” Swor said.