An hours long standoff with a group of heavily armed men that partially shut down Interstate 95 ended Saturday with 11 suspects in custody, Massachusetts state police said.
Police initially reported nine suspects were taken into custody, but two more were taken into custody in their vehicle later Saturday morning.
Two suspects were hospitalized, but police said it was for preexisting conditions that had nothing to do with the standoff.
Mass State Police Col. Christopher Mason said the suspects surrendered after police tactical teams used armored vehicles to tighten the perimeter around them.
The standoff shut down a portion of I-95 for much of the morning, causing major traffic problems during the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Authorities said the interstate is now reopened and the shelter-in-place orders for Wakefield and Reading were lifted.
In Massachusetts, Interstate 95 runs from the Rhode Island line, around Boston to the New Hampshire line. Wakefield is just east of where Interstate 95 and 93 meet north of Boston.
The standoff began around 2 a.m. when police noticed two cars pulled over on I-95 with hazard lights on after they had apparently run out of fuel, authorities said at a Saturday press briefing.
At least some of the suspects were clad in military-style gear with long guns and pistols, Mason said. He added that they were headed to Maine from Rhode Island for “training.”
“You can imagine 11 armed individuals standing with long guns slung on an interstate highway at 2 in the morning certainly raises concerns and is not consistent with the firearms laws that we have in Massachusetts,” Mason said.
He said he understood the suspects, who did not have firearms licenses, have a different perspective on the law.
“I appreciate that perspective,” he said “I disagree with that perspective at the end of the day, but I recognize that it’s there.”
The men refused to put down their weapons or comply with authorities’ orders, claiming to be from a group “that does not recognize our laws” before taking off into a wooded area, police said.
Police and prosecutors are working to determine what charges the members of the group will face.
The suspects were expected to appear in court in Woburn on Tuesday, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said.
Mason said the “self-professed leader” of the group wanted it to be known that they are not antigovernment.
“I think the investigation that follows from this interaction will provide us more insight into what their motivation, what their ideology is,” Mason said.
In a video posted to social media Saturday morning, a man who did not give his name, but said he was from a group called Rise of the Moors, broadcast from Interstate 95 in Wakefield near exit 57.
“We are not antigovernment. We are not anti-police, we are not sovereign citizens, we’re not Black identity extremists,” said the man who appeared to be wearing military-style equipment. “As specified multiple times to the police that we are abiding by the peaceful journey laws of the United States.”
The website for the group says they are “Moorish Americans dedicated to educating new Moors and influencing our Elders.”
Freddy Cruz, a research analyst with the Southern Poverty Law Center who specializes in anti-government extremism, told WBUR it’s very common for extremist groups to deny affiliation.
“These Moorish sovereign groups will try and say they’re not sovereign citizens,” Cruz said. “In some cases, they’ll say they’re not militias even when they are fully-fledged militias with a hierarchy in place, with leaders and rank-and-file members.”
Cruz said the men calling themselves Rise of the Moors who were apprehended in Wakefield fit a lot of “pseudo-legal nonsense” criteria: a refusal to acknowledge the United States government, a claim to be a sovereign nation, disregard for licenses for vehicles or weapons, and disbelief in taxation.
“In their world, a better society can be built that is more fair and just. With Rise of Moors, they’ll try and take property or try to claim an abandoned house,” Cruz said. “A lot of these groups try and do it with the idea that they can provide a better life for their followers… a lot of times, unfortunately, I think people who have fallen on hard times tend to take on a lot of these beliefs with the idea that their lives can somehow be improved.”
Material from The Associated Press was used in this report. WBUR’s Quincy Walters contributed to this story.
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“Moorish Americans” who through deception practice extremism. In liberal Massachusetts, these extremists will be let go. Secondly, Merrick Garland, where are you and the Department of No Justice? I thought you were going to fight extremism? Oh I forgot, you Merrick indicated that only whites are extremists, so the “Moorish Americans” do not fit that description!
WHEN i first heard of this, i was wondering WHAT THE RACE of everyone of those arrested was.. NOW I KNOW..
Shocked to see these mudslimes actually getting arrested, what with the FBI/Dept of injustices, LOVE of everything mudslime.. All no-thanks to obozo the first.
Anyone who thinks White Supremacy is bad, has not experienced Black Supremacy. Try read White Girl Bleed A Lot. However White Americans, Asians, Hispanics are now experiencing BLM Supremacy in all its gory violence, is a Beginners’ introduction to Black Supremacy 101. It will get much worse if we do not define our too tolerant White Nation, and enforce it as such against all threats. USA is a White and Christian Nation shared by good Christian POC’s. As a Nation, all Americans are self governed to keep USA as a Constitutional Republic under our Christian God, with Freedom and Liberty for All American Citizens, that is, if we can keep it!
Nation of Islam Founder Louis Farrakhan put out a statement mourning the loss of a “brother” shot by Police who he said could have been a future “star” in his violent racist Islamic movement.The Atlantic described many of the Black NFAC’s militia as follows: “They joined a group that promised to take a bite out of the Earth and reserve it for Black people. They expected to be led by a commander who preaches radical separatism, and who will swagger with an AR-15 in public and boast that his snipers can bisect a white militiaman’s head from 1,000 yards away. Jay told me that he already had to vet his recruits carefully.”
Just ask those who had to flee Rhwanda, Nigeria or south africa!
CANCEL Obama. The very WORST thing Obama. aka Barry Soetoro did, was usurp the Office of POTUS, two times, to which he was not eligible as a foreign agent ISLAMIC Jihadist infiltrator, and admitted Enemy of our Constitution FOR the USA, and seething with hatred of White AMERICANS.
The website for the group says “they are Moorish Americans dedicated to educating new Moors and influencing our elders.” Such a nobel endeavor. Too bad they are really just a bunch of nut cases.
By the way, how does one become a “new Moor”?
ANd what exactly is a “Moorish american”?!
Just another name for a mudslime extremist?
KAMALA: What is important to know and fight against is this fact: Kamala is usurping OFFICE by election2020 fraud, and she is not eligible for VP or POTUS because she is not a Natural Born Citizen of USA as her parents were alien student visa travelers NOT US Citizens. Like the 2-Term Usurper Muslim Infiltrator Barack Obama who has finally admitted he was born in Kenya not USA, Kamala Harris must be arrested immediately for her federal level felony treasonous crimes, then after prison, both she and Obama should be deported and banished from USA forever!
Biden/Harris are usurping Offices by way of massive collusion with China’s CCP to corrupt our 2020 Elections, and therefore you must resign immediately , or be arrested for TREASON.
That’s good planning, real bright. Well thought-out.
Run out of gas in Taxachusetts, of all places.
Since this incident occurred in a deep blue state and did not help advance the left’s bogus claim that the greatest threat our nation faces is from heavily-armed White supremacists, I am surprised that it received any media coverage at all. Can you imagine just how much hysteria this incident would have generated in the leftist, mainstream media if it had involved armed White men?
When this first hit the airwaves, i was like “SO WHY ARE they being arrested, when they actually DIDN’T really do much of anything wrong (till i heard about them pushing the same BULL as “Soverign citizens do”), when that BLACK POWER MILITANT Group last year, who was AREMED UP JUST LIKE THESE PLEBS were, were not even TOUCHED, when they marched in that US NATIONAL PARK…”
Then after i heard more info, i was like “GOOD”..
On their way to “Maine for training”. Figures. Maine used to be a nice place until the “Masshole” influence poisoned the mentality. The jerks who screwed up their own states of Massachussetts, New York, R.I., Connecticut etc. found those places inhabitable for some strange reason and therefore moved to a state that hadn’t been corrupted by liberal ideology. A crusade the northeast “progressives” sought to correct. Take down the “Maine-the way life ought to be” signs at the border.
AND where IN maine were they headed for training?
Why do I get the feeling this was just a Test by these Moors for some type of future movement?
I’m sure this article is wrong. These people are obviously white supremacists.
I know because Joe told me the most dangerous people in the country are white supremacists.