Police arrested a man and a woman in Las Vegas Thursday who were plotting to abduct, torture, and murder police officers as part of the antiauthority sovereign citizen extremist movement. Undercover police have been investigating the couple since April.
David Allen Brutsche, 42, and Devon Campbell Newman, 67, planned to kidnap a random officer, put them on “trial” in a makeshift jail they created in a vacant house, and then murder them.
According to USA Today, the goal of sovereign citizen extremists is to rebel against authority and government. They are considered a domestic terrorist threat by the FBI because they highly dislike police and go to violent measures to disobey them.
Brutsche and Newman recorded their conversations and plans.
“We have the right to stop the cops by killing them,” Brutsche said in one of the recordings in June, Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.
A criminal background check revealed Brutsche is a six-time convicted felon and a registered sex offender in California. Newman did not have any known criminal background.
Brutsche and Newman are being held at Clark County jail awaiting court appearances and will be charged with conspiracy to commit murder, attempted kidnapping, and attempted murder, among other charges.