Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
You may have seen on the evening news KOLD News 13 or read about in the newspaper 3 arrested in killings of dad, girl in Arivaca the arrest of Shawna Forde, the leader of Minutemen American Defense (a group out of Washington state that conducts operations along the U.S.-Mexican border in Arizona) in connection with a May 30 home invasion that left a father and his 9 year old daughter dead and the mother wounded.
This group is not related to either the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps founded by Chris Simcox, or the Minuteman Project founded by Jim Gilchrist (according to the Arizona Daily Star report).
Authorities also arrested Jason Eugene Bush, 34, who serves as operations director for the Washington group, and Albert Robert Gaxiola, 42, in connection with the shooting deaths of Raul Flores, 29, and his 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia Flores, said Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik.
The three are charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of first degree burglary, and one count of aggravated assault.
Raul Flores was a suspected drug dealer, and the three suspects targeted the house with the intention of stealing money and drugs, he said.
Bush was the suspected shooter, Dupnik said.
They did not plan to leave any survivors, he said. "The plan was to kill everyone. To kill a 9-year-old because she might be a potential witness is one of the most despicable acts I've heard of."
Dupnik said Forde and her cohorts even searched for the couple's other daughter, who had spent the night at her grandmother's, with the intention of killing her.
Forde was the suspected ringleader of the operation. Investigators believe the three planned to sell the drugs after the home invasion, he said.
Crooksandliars.com blog, which tracks the activities of right-wing extremist groups, has more. Right Wing Anti-Immigrant Group Leader Arrested For Murder, Burglary In AZ
Shawna Forde, a rising star in the xenophobic, anti-immigrant militia movement has been arrested for her role in a home invasion that left two dead, including a 9 year old girl.
TUCSON, AZ (KOLD) – Pima County Sheriff's investigators have charged three people with a May 30 home invasion that left a father and 9-year-old girl dead.
Shawna Forde, Jason Eugene Bush and Albert Robert Gaxiola face murder, burglary and aggravated assault charges.
Investigators say the suspects broke into a home in Arivaca, shooting and killing 29-year old Raul Flores and his daughter Brisenia.
Investigators say Forde was the mastermind of the operation. She and Gaxiola are in the Pima county jail. Answering media questions while led out in handcuffs, both suspects denied responsibility for the deadly home invasion.
"This is a very unusual woman," said Clarence Dupnik, Pima County Sheriff. "I don't really know what goes on in her mind, but she is obviously a very evil person. If you look at her history closely, and you know what we know, she is, at best, a psychopath." Read on…
Forde, who is surrounded by numerous controversies, has been on the radars of both the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League for some time now. Shawna is also supported by Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the Minuteman Project — who is also embroiled in controversies of his own.
David Neiwert adds When the Minutemen 'go tactical' for dollars: Forde intended gang to rip off dealers, and may have struck in CA already:
My old friend Scott North, who has been around the block with reporting on the activities of the far right in Snohomish County — where Forde is from — reports this morning that Forde may have been involved in another violent home invasion in California already:
On Saturday, Arizona detectives were pursuing tips that members of Forde's group may have staged a home invasion robbery in Shasta Lake, Calif., on Monday.
The victims, friends of Forde's mother, reported being robbed at gunpoint of nearly $12,000 by two men who showed up at the door and presented badges claiming they were U.S. Marshals.
Truck driver Peter Myers, 48, said he recognized one of men who robbed him after he saw news reports about Forde's arrest and photographs of her co-defendants.
He said the man who directed the robbery in his home was Jason Eugene Bush, 34. The ex-convict from Eastern Washington is a Forde associate now accused of being the gunman in the Arivaca killings.
"That is the guy. He pointed a gun right at us," Myers said.
***
Arizona officials have said Bush is recovering from a gunshot wound received during the home invasion there. Myers said that description fits the tall man who bound him with zip ties and then took cash from the family's lock box.
"He was moving real slow," Meyers said.
Forde's mother, Rena Caudle, said her daughter recently visited the area. After Friday's arrest, Caudle said she made certain that Arizona officials knew about the suspected link to the California robbery.
This may just be the tip of the iceberg with this gang. Already Jim Gilchrist, the Minuteman leader with whom Forde has had a long association, is making the signs of the cross in her general direction and declaring he had nothing to do with her:
Jim Gilchrist, president of the California-based Minuteman Project and a longtime Forde ally, made it clear Saturday that his earlier support of Forde should in no way be construed as approving the actions now attributed to her.
"Am I going to come to her support at this time? Of course not. How can I?" Gilchrist said.
Forde ran her own organization, Gilchrist said.
"Unfortunately, some people in this Minutemen movement have used this movement to carry out sinister agendas," he said.
We'll see. Investigators may not be done making arrests yet.
Indeed, it's starting to look as though Forde may have been organizing basically a low-rent version of The Order: an ideological army turned into criminal moneymaking operation. Only this time, anti-immigrant nativism instead of white supremacy is the ideological driver. And when The Order crumbled in flames, it exposed all kinds of criminal dealings on the far right.
North reported yesterday on Forde's background. He also conducted a long interview (see above) in which she claimed to be an important figure in the Minuteman movement. The problem, of course, is that you can't believe a word any of these people say:
Forde has a long and troubled history in Snohomish County, including juvenile convictions for felonies, prostitution and other street crime. Some of her past was recounted by The Herald in a profile that appeared Feb. 22.
Forde was at the center of a flurry of violence that began Dec. 22 when her ex-husband was shot in his Everett home. A week later, she reported being beaten and raped by strangers at the same house.
On Jan. 15, Forde was found in a north Everett alley with apparent gunshot wounds.
She claimed the violence was all retaliation for her activities targeting criminal groups operating on both sides of the border between Mexico and the U.S.
The cases here remain under investigation by Everett police.
Forde's ex-husband was seriously wounded during the Dec. 22 shooting. Reached Friday, he was distraught hearing that a child died. He declined to comment on his former wife.
Forde's mother, who lives in California, said she was not surprised to hear of her daughter's arrest.
Rena Caudle said Forde visited her before heading to the border this year. She talked of staging home invasions, Caudle said.
"She sat here and said that she was going to start a group where they went down and start taking things away from the Mexican mafia," Caudle said. "She was going to kick in their doors and take away the money and the drugs."
Caudle said she wasn't sure what to make of that at the time, in part because Forde has a history of exaggeration and lying.
Turns out, this time she wasn't.
Now, back in October, I published an investigative piece on the Minutemen — financed by The Nation Investigative Fund and published in The American Prospect — which warned precisely of this kind of devolution of the Minuteman movement. (Read the article).
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