Watch: Police use ‘grappler’ to end pursuit; ‘sovereign citizen’ arrested
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PARMA HEIGHTS, Ohio (WJW) – It is the latest advancement in law enforcement, and the Grappler Police Bumper played a major role in bringing a stop to a police chase in suburban Cleveland over the weekend.
Police in Parma Heights say the pursuit was set into motion when an officer pulled over a car with dark tinted windows and a tag that read, “Moorish National Republic Federal Government.
Investigators say the driver refused to cooperate with the officer or even acknowledge his authority.
Authorities would later conclude that the woman behind the wheel, 31-year-old Nia McLin of Chicago, is a so-called sovereign citizen.
“There’s not necessarily a dead giveaway but some of the things this officer noticed were her responses, citing that she did not recognize the officer’s authority. She was citing different titles and codes that were not Ohio law or law that the Supreme Court had ruled on,” said Parma Heights Police Sergeant Eric Taylor.
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What McLin did not know was that just before she fled from the traffic stop, an officer, suspecting that she might run, had placed a small device called a Terminator under one of her rear tires.
The tire quickly went flat, but that did not stop McLin from running from police on three tires.
In response to the threat to public safety, Parma Heights police asked for help from neighboring Parma police because of a specialized piece of equipment they are using called the Grappler Police Bumper.
The cutting-edge technology allows officers to deploy netting and straps from their bumper, that are directed under the rear wheels of the vehicle being pursued and bring it to a stop.
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On Sunday, the device worked as it was designed and brought a safe conclusion to the pursuit of McLin’s car.
On police dash camera video obtained by FOX 8, McLin’s car is shown coming to a sudden stop and the officer then told dispatchers, “good grapple, good grapple!”
“Part of the strategy is to stop them before they get too far into the pursuit. Stop them early before the speeds get out of hand, before it gets onto the highway, before it gets into the residential areas,” Parma Police Chief James Blair told FOX 8. “The longer it lasts, the more in danger the public is, the more in danger the officers are.”
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Police bodycam video shows McLin being ordered out of the car at gunpoint, and under the law that sovereign citizens refuse to acknowledge or obey, she was arrested and charged with fleeing and eluding.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re somebody that has a sovereign citizen mindset or not, we treat everybody that we come into contact with the same across the board as an agency,” said Sgt. Taylor.
During an appearance in Parma Municipal Court, bond for the 31-year-old McLin was set at $100,000.
We are told the case will be presented to a grand jury and prosecutors will be seeking felony charges.
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A minute-by-minute timeline of fatal shooting of Alex Pretti involving federal agents
GABY VINICK, CHRIS LOOFT, JOSH MARGOLIN, PETER CHARALAMBOUS and CAMILLA ALCINI
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The interaction that ended in the death of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday morning began at least three minutes earlier when Pretti appeared to be using his phone to record CBP officers, according to videos reviewed and verified by ABC News.
Minutes later, Pretti was pinned on the street by multiple federal agents — visibly being hit by one of them — when one of the officers can be seen leaving the struggle with what appears to be a gun.
Those videos appear to contradict, at least in part, claims by federal officials that Pretti “approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun” and “attacked” officers carrying out immigration duties.
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During a news conference Saturday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti “arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement.”
Videos verified by ABC News show that Pretti appeared to be using his phone to record the agents before he was shoved by a federal officer. Seconds later, a federal officer repeatedly pepper-sprayed Pretti and then appeared to pull him into the street.
While Pretti seems to have been pinned on the street by officers, one of the agents is seen in multiple verified videos emerging from the scrum with a handgun that appears to match the weapon federal officials say Pretti was carrying. Before the first shot is fired, another agent can be seen drawing his own handgun, while another repeatedly hits Pretti.
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In total, 10 shots were fired in less than five seconds, according to a forensic audio analysis of the videos. Pretti was declared dead on the scene.
“What the videos depict is that this guy did not walk up to anybody from CBP in a threatening manner,” said former acting DHS undersecretary for intelligence John Cohen, a police trainer and ABC News contributor. “For [DHS] to construe that he arrived at that location with the intent to shoot those border patrol officers, there’s nothing in the video evidence that we’ve seen thus far that would support that.”
This is a timeline based on six different verified videos of the incident.
8:54:54 a.m. — Activists arrive at Nicollet Avenue, according to eyewitness video obtained by the Associated Press.
8:55:51 a.m. — Activists appear to call for assistance from others after spotting federal officers. An individual off camera can be heard saying, “Need more observers, they are getting out of their car.”
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8:56:29 a.m. — At least eight federal officers gather outside Glam Doll Donuts.
8:57:46 a.m. — Federal officers are seen preparing canisters of pepper spray, as more protestors arrive.
8:58:11 a.m. — Three minutes and two seconds before the first shot is fired, Alex Pretti holds a phone before a federal officer on Nicollet Ave. in Minnesota, in what appears to be an apparent attempt to record a nearby detention by immigration authorities.
8:58:22 a.m. — A second federal officer carrying a canister of pepper spray approaches Pretti, who continues to hold up his phone.
8:58:29 a.m. — One federal officer appears to push Pretti towards the sidewalk.
8:59:08 a.m. — Another eyewitness begins recording the incident, showing Pretti continuing to lift his phone towards officers, as they appear to detain someone in the street.
8:59:24 a.m. — Pretti is seen lifting a phone towards the officers as they move a detainee into a nearby vehicle.
9:00:12 a.m. — Pretti continues to lift his phone towards nearby federal officers as they interact with two unidentified individuals, one with an orange backpack and another in a parka.
9:00:21 a.m. — The two individuals, who were later pepper-sprayed alongside Pretti, speak with a federal agent. Several people honk and whistle. “Watch out for that car,” the officer says as a car passes the group.
9:00:41 a.m. — Three different cameras capture the next interaction. The officer shouts at one of the civilians, “Do not push them into traffic,” and pushes them towards Pretti. Pretti continues to raise his phone towards the officers.
9:00:44 a.m. — The individual who was pushed appears to hold onto Pretti as the federal officer approaches them.
9:00:45 a.m. — The federal officer appears to push Pretti.
9:00:47 a.m. — The officer is seen pushing the individual with the orange backpack.
9:00:50 a.m. — The officer uses pepper spray on Pretti, and Pretti appears to raise his hand towards the officer to get between the officer and the person with the backpack, but the officer immediately pepper-sprays him. According to ABC News contributor and former acting DHS undersecretary Cohen, it appears Pretti used his hand in an attempt to signal that he was not a threat to officers.
9:00:53 a.m. — The officer pepper-sprays the other two civilians again.
9:00:54 a.m. — After being sprayed, Pretti appears to fall into the person with the backpack and possibly grab that person to stabilize himself.
9:00:56 a.m. — The federal officer appears to pull Pretti into the street, appearing to tug him by the hood of his coat.
9:01:02 a.m. — Three officers hold down Pretti, while another group of officers surrounds Pretti. According to ABC News contributor and former acting DHS undersecretary Cohen, the officers do not appear to be following the tactical steps to control and arrest Pretti. “This just seemed to be a free-for-all, and they didn’t seem to have any understanding from a tactical perspective on how to gain control of that individual,” he said.
9:01:05 a.m. — A nearby woman can be heard screaming, “That is police brutality. They are hitting an observer. They’re kicking them in the face.” At one point, at least five officers are on top of Pretti, pinning him down.
9:01:11 a.m. — One of the agents appears to hit Pretti, swinging his hand to repeatedly punch Pretti.
9:01:12 a.m. — One of the officers appears to draw a handgun.
9:01:13 a.m. — One of the federal officers appears to remove a gun from Pretti’s waist that seems to match the handgun federal officials said he was carrying.
9:01:14 a.m. — Another video shows the officer in the grey jacket emerging from the scrum, holding a firearm that appears to match Pretti’s weapon. The video of the officer entering the scrum did not show the agent carrying a weapon. Three cameras capture the moment.
9:01:14 a.m. –– First shot is fired. At least one officer immediately steps away from Pretti.
9:01:16 a.m. — One second after the first shot, three additional shots are fired. Pretti appears to go limp and fall to the ground.
9:01:19 a.m. — Within three seconds, six more shots are fired. The six agents have stepped back from Pretti’s body.
9:01:45 a.m. — Twenty-nine seconds after the first shot, an officer approaches Pretti. According to a sworn affidavit from a doctor who says they treated Pretti at the scene, Pretti had at least three bullet wounds in his back, an additional wound on his upper chest, and another possible wound on his neck.
09:02:28 a.m. — Seventy-four seconds after the first shot is fired, the officer in a grey jacket is heard saying, “I got the gun. I got the gun,” and walks towards the officers surrounding Pretti.
An analysis conducted by Robert Maher, a professor at Montana State University specializing in audio forensics, concluded that 10 shots were fired in less than 5 seconds.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated.
Why are police a target for sovereign citizen violence?
Authors
- Emma ShakespearePhD Candidate, Griffith University
- Keiran HardyAssociate Professor, Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University
- Kristina MurphyProfessor and former ARC Future Fellow, Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University
Disclosure statement
Keiran Hardy receives funding from the Australian Research Council for a Discovery Project on conspiracy-fuelled extremism.
Kristina Murphy receives funding from The Australian Research Council to study conspiracy-fuelled extremism.
Emma Shakespeare does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Partners
Griffith University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.
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As the tragic events evolve in Porepunkah, northeast Victoria, media outlets have reported the alleged shooter, Dezi Freeman, is known to be a “sovereign citizen”.
Sovereign citizens believe they are not subject to the law. This view stems from deeply held anti-government beliefs combined with conspiracy thinking that the government was replaced with a corporation that controls us through our birth certificates, licences, and other identification documents. We are only subject to the laws of this corporation, the theory goes, if we choose to enter into a contract with it.
This fundamental rejection of government authority means sovereign citizens refuse to comply with routine processes such as paying taxes and completing random breath tests. They use pseudo-law – legal-sounding but ultimately false arguments – to disobey police and disrupt the court system.
Videos of sovereign citizens refusing to comply with police orders have gone viral, and can be viewed as novelty or entertainment. However, the killing of two police officers in Porepunkah and a previous ambush of police in Wieambilla, Queensland, show that some sovereign citizens can become radicalised and highly dangerous.
So what makes police a possible target for sovereign citizen violence? And why do some sovereign citizens radicalise?
Why do sovereign citizens target police?
Police officers are the frontline representatives of government authority. They enforce the law in our communities, which means they come into frequent contact with sovereign citizens who reject their authority and defy their orders.
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This means police bear the brunt of sovereign citizen resistance. But other sources of authority — including judges, court clerks, tax officers and public servants — also face it.
Many encounters arise during routine policing duties. Traffic stops or roadside breath tests can escalate quickly when sovereign citizens refuse to comply with police directions. As many of the videos on social media show, these incidents might amount to a heated argument or scuffle over an arrest, but not a serious attack. Nonetheless, there is an underlying risk of harm.
We are examining police body-worn camera footage to map how these interactions progress and how they can best be de-escalated to avoid harm.
At the start of an interaction, there are typically warning signs that police are dealing with a sovereign citizen. Sovereign citizens often use “private” number plates, have symbols or writing on their vehicles, and hand over large files of pseudo-law documents. There might also be a warrant out for their arrest.
As the tragic events in Porepunkah and Wieambilla show, police attending a property to carry out an arrest warrant of a sovereign citizen can be a highly volatile situation. In Wieambilla, the attackers were driven primarily by extreme religious beliefs, but they had engaged with various anti-government conspiracy theories online and were heavily influenced by a sovereign citizen in the United States.
Research on sovereign citizen violence against police in the US describes two types of ambush: entrapment (planned) and spontaneous (unplanned). Most fatal ambushes involved entrapment. That study mapped 75 acts of sovereign citizen violence against law enforcement between 1983 and 2020, in which 27 officers were killed.
At this stage, we don’t know whether the Porepunkah shooting was a planned ambush or a spontaneous response to police arriving on the property. We do know the suspect was known to police from many prior interactions.
In all these encounters – from less to more serious, planned or unplanned – sovereign citizens view police as agents of an illegitimate, unlawful government.
When they resist police orders, sovereign citizens believe they are legitimately resisting the tyranny of state control, and defending their inherent rights and freedoms as a “living being”.
In Wieambilla, the attackers even viewed police as “demons and devils” in the second coming of Christ.
Why do some sovereign citizens radicalise to violence?
Radicalisation is a social-psychological process in which someone adopts and internalises extreme beliefs and progresses towards acts of violence.
Earlier radicalisation models focused on ideology as the most important factor and described “pathways”, “conveyor belts” and “staircases” to terrorism. Now, radicalisation is understood to involve diverse processes resulting from many different risk factors interacting.
Risk factors for radicalisation include social isolation, the lack of a clear sense of identity and purpose, strongly held grievances, negative childhood experiences (such as abuse or bullying), and trigger events (such as divorce or job loss).
Many of these are innocuous by themselves, and something most people experience at some time in their lives. However, if enough risk factors combine with extreme belief systems, this can lead to criminal acts, violence and terrorism.
There are not many studies on the radicalisation of sovereign citizens specifically, and much of what we know about radicalisation comes from studies of Islamist and far-right terrorists. Still, there is likely overlap between sovereign citizen and far-right radicalisation, given both can be driven by extreme anti-government views.
A recent review of international evidence suggests sovereign citizens are more likely to be male, older, experiencing financial difficulties and relationship troubles, and have previous negative experiences with authority.
We recently fielded a national Australian survey which confirms these findings. The average person agreeing with sovereign citizen beliefs in our sample was 52-years-old and experiencing financial troubles. They were more likely to have a criminal record and hold deep distrust towards government. They were more likely to believe in conspiracy theories, were highly cynical of the law, and showed high levels of trait reactance (in short, they don’t like being told what to do).
People with high trait reactance are more likely to resist directions they view as restricting their freedom or autonomy.
We also found people agreeing with sovereign citizen beliefs were more likely to support violence and have engaged in violence in the past.
This helps explain who is more likely to become a sovereign citizen, and it points to some links between sovereign citizen ideology and violence. But it doesn’t tell us why some sovereign citizens are more likely to be violent than others.
That question is likely to be answered in individual cases by the interplay of various risk factors for radicalisation. It is a question that researchers, police and intelligence agencies will continue to grapple with as sovereign citizen ideas pose ongoing threats to the community.
