Texas Separatists Take Hostages Militants Seize Two Neighbors, Demand Release Of Inmates, Vote On Independence
Armed militant separatists who believe Texas should be an independent nation took two neighbors hostage Sunday in remote west Texas in retaliation for the arrest of two members.
About three dozen local and state police surrounded the area and, by nightfall, began negotiations with the group, said Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Lucila Torres.
Richard McLaren, the self-styled “ambassador” of the group called Republic of Texas, told a San Antonio radio station the group would end its standoff at the couple’s home in exchange for the release of two members under arrest and another key concession:
“We want them to … agree to a referendum to allow Texans to vote on the independence issue,” McLaren said from his group’s headquarters in the Davis Mountains.
The Republic of Texas contends that the annexation of Texas as a state in 1845 was illegal, that Texas should remain an independent nation, and that the group’s leaders constitute the legitimate government of the independent nation of Texas.
Group members stormed the home of Joe Rowe and his wife, Margaret Ann Rowe, firing shots about noon, authorities said. The home is about 15 miles from McLaren’s headquarters.
Margaret Rowe’s brother, Bob Bowers, said he spoke by telephone Sunday with his sister, who said her 50-year-old husband had suffered a superficial gunshot wound to the shoulder.
Torres refused to say how many people belong to McLaren’s group. She said the subdivision was sealed off.
Residents had been complaining for months about McLaren, a wild-haired, lanky rancher who would file property liens against his neighbors and threaten them with machine guns. He had been avoiding an arrest warrant since last December for filing the bogus liens.
Last month, McLaren, 43, threatened to fight the government and compared his situation to fatal standoffs at Waco and Ruby Ridge, Idaho.
“These boys are asking for a total military assault,” McLaren said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Our defense forces will fire because we would consider it an invasion.”
The Republic has had a long-running feud with the Rowes, who lead an area homeowners’ association and whom McLaren has called “federal moles.”
McLaren said his group took the Rowes hostage after a Republic member was arrested.
Robert Jonathan Scheidt, 43, was in jail Sunday after being arrested when police found two assault rifles in his van.
McLaren said he was also angered by the arrest last Tuesday of group member Jo Ann Canady Turner on two contempt charges.
Tuesday, the group said it issued warrants for “foreign agents” responsible for Turner’s arrest, including “all United States federal judges and all IRS agents on Texas soil.”