Police officers arrested David Allen Brutsche and Devon Campbell Newman in Las Vegas, Nevada on Wednesday, August 21 for allegedly planning to execute police officers.
The arrests were the culmination of a sting operation. Authorities were investigating the so-called sovereign citizen movement, which rejects governmental authority. The federal government considers members of these groups to be domestic terrorists because their methods violate federal law.
A police officer went undercover to investigate the group. The unnamed officer first met with Brutsche and Newman in April. The trio participated in training sessions with other members of the sovereign citizen’s movement, and even created a makeshift jail to hold a mock court.
"We need to arrest the police and take them to our jail and put them in a cell and put them on trial in a people's court," Brutsche said July 9, according to the arrest report, CBS News says.
Brutsche and Newman are currently in jail, facing charges of conspiracy to commit murder and attempted kidnapping.
Newman acknowledges that Brutsche talked about kidnapping a police officer, but insists that she wanted nothing to do with the plot, local news station KLAS reports.