Report: Swastikas found in apartment of Las Vegas cop killers
Killers of Las Vegas cops harbored anti-government ideology, police say, as reports clams neo-Nazi paraphernalia found in their apartment.
The couple who shot two Las Vegas police officers to death in a weekend ambush before killing a bystander and themselves in a nearby Wal-Mart harbored anti-law enforcement and anti-government ideologies but are believed to have acted alone, authorities said on Monday.
Police are still investigating their links to white supremacy movement after swastika symbols were found in the couple's apartment, the Las Vegas Review Journal reported.
The suspects, identified as Jerad Miller, 31, and his wife, Amanda, 22, expressed support in social media for renegade Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, and the husband claimed to have been present at the standoff between federal agents and militia members at Bundy's ranch in April, police in Las Vegas said.
Police sources close to the investigation told the Las Vegas Review Journal that the shooters shouted that “this is the start of a revolution” before opening fire on the officers. The report further claimed they had draped their bodies with cloth showing a Revolutionary War-era flag.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said the shootings are part of a growing trend of right-wing extremists singling out police officers for unprovoked violence and bloodshed.
“The two police officers who lost their lives are only the latest in a series of casualties in a de facto war being waged against police by right-wing extremists, including both anti-government extremists and white supremacists,” said Mark Pitcavage, ADL Director of Investigative Research.
“Some extremists have deliberately targeted police, while others have responded violently when meeting police in unplanned encounters. The killings are not the effort of a concerted campaign, but rather a series of independent attacks and clashes stemming from right-wing ideologies.”
Based on their Internet writings, the Millers believed in common militia-type conspiracy theories about the “New World Order,” including “concentration camps” for Americans, coming martial law and “chemtrails,” among others. The most recent entry on Jerad Miller’s Facebook page on June 7 chillingly read: “The dawn of a new day. May all of our coming sacrifices be worth it.”
In the past five years alone, according to ADL data, there have been 43 separate violent incidents between domestic extremists (of all types) and law enforcement in the United States. Of these incidents, 39 involved extremists sporting some sort of extreme right-wing ideology.
“Extreme ideologies seem to provoke some right-wing radicals into directly attacking police officers,” Pitcavage said. “Anti-government extremists such as militia groups and sovereign citizens believe that police are agents of the illegitimate government, while white supremacists believe that police are tools of the ‘Jewish-controlled’ government.
"The same ideologies can cause extremists to act out violently when they randomly encounter police in routine situations.”
Reuters contributed to this report
