The young leader of an Alaska militia movement who spoke at a conservative convention in Missoula last year has been arrested and charged with plotting to kill federal judges and state troopers and burn down their houses. Schaeffer Cox, founder of the Alaska Peacemakers Militia, has been charged with conspiring to commit murder, kidnapping, arson, hindering prosecution and possession of illegal weapons, according to the Anchorage Daily News. Bail for the 26-year-old Cox is set at $3 million.
According to the criminal complaint, based on FBI recordings of Cox’s meetings with militia members, any attempts to arrest Cox on an outstanding misdemeanor warrant, for which he was in hiding, would be met with retaliatory action against judges and state troopers “with twice the force and consequences as happened to him or his family.” Also according to the criminal complaint, militia members allegedly discussed a plan to kill state troopers and judges where the militia, “would then have the tactical teams going to the target’s houses, cutting the power, shooting the inhabitants as they come out to check on their power; then the team would kick the target’s residence’s doors in, kill everybody inside and set the house on fire. Then the team would lay in hiding and take out the initial responding officer before moving on to the next target.”
Here’s video of Cox being warmly received with his wife at the Liberty Convention last May in Missoula. Accounts in the Missoulian peg the number of attendees at the conference at about 200. The event was organized by the Ravalli County group Celebrating Conservatism. A sequence of videos of Cox’s remarks from Missoula are also on youtube.
Liberal blogger Montana Cowgirl first reported the arrests, noting that many conservative leaders from all over the state, including some from the Flathead, were in attendance.