Texas Militant Killed In Gun Battle Law Officers Shoot Secessionist; Second Fugitive Being Tracked

A member of the militant secessionist group known as the Republic of Texas was shot and killed Monday in a gun battle with Texas authorities in the Davis Mountains here.

The man was one of two group members whom the state did not fire at when they fled on foot Saturday as the Republic’s leader and four other followers were surrendering. He was killed after both fugitives fired at a state police helicopter overhead and at several redbone hounds that had been tracking them. The other fugitive was not captured.

Monday evening, state troopers on horseback rode into the mountains to retrieve the body of the dead man. The state would not release his name until a justice of the peace had come to the scene and declared him dead.

The two fugitives, who had fled armed with deer hunting rifles and possibly one or more handguns, have been identified as Richard Keyes 3d, 21, of Kansas, and Mike Matson, 48, of Chicago.

Two of the hounds were shot at close range by the fugitives, but were expected to survive, authorities said.

The surviving secessionist was still being pursued Monday evening, said Sherri Deatherage Green, a Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman. His movements were being tracked by helicopter.

Matson actually has no charges pending against him, but Keyes faces state charges stemming from the kidnapping of two neighbors here eight days ago, the incident that sparked the standoff.

The authorities said they had allowed the two men to flee because they did not want to jeopardize the nearly completed negotiations for the peaceful surrender of Richard L. McClaren, the group’s leader.

Federal prosecutors unsealed today a 25-count indictment against McLaren, accusing him and several of his followers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of passing hundreds of thousands of dollars of worthless “Republic of Texas” checks.

The official-looking checks were used to bilk American Express and several stores and banks, said Paul Coggins, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas.

“This indictment sends a clear message to those who try to rip off residents and then ride off into the sunset by wrapping themselves in militia doublespeak,” Coggins said. “Don’t mess with Texas.”

The Republic of Texas group claims that Texas was never legally annexed in 1845 and that it thus remains an independent nation, whose assets the group says it controls.

The indictments name McLaren, as well as Evelyn McLaren, the woman he “married” in a group-sanctioned ceremony in December, and five other followers, none of whom were involved in the seven-day armed standoff between the group and Texas authorities here. The other five defendants, whose identities remain sealed, are at large in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, officials said.

These seven are also accused, along with members of a separatist group from Louisiana calling itself the Washati Nation, of setting up a bank account in Puerto Rico and depositing $5 million in worthless Republic of Texas dollars. At least one member of the Washati Nation faces charges in Puerto Rico, said a spokesman in the U.S. attorney’s office in Dallas.

McLaren remains jailed on state charges in Marfa, 20 miles south of here. His arraignment on the federal charges has been postponed, and it is unclear when that will take place. From jail, he has vowed to continue his battle for Texas independence. “We’re still moving forward,” he said to reporters on Sunday.

The secessionist leader had repeatedly said that he wanted to appear before a federal judge to press his case for diplomatic immunity and for a Texas-wide referendum on nationhood.