Nashua Police Lend Bearcat To Assist With Armed Standoff In Mass.

NASHUA, NH — The Nashua Police Department lent its Bearcat vehicle to assist Massachusetts State Police and the Northeastern Mass. Law Enforcement Council SWAT team at a standoff that led to 11 men, who were accused of being heavily-armed, being charged, according to state police and reports on Patch.

The Interstate was shut down around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday when a state trooper noticed the men attempting to fuel vehicles in a breakdown lane on the highway. The men, state police said, were dressed in military-style garb and were carrying rifles and handguns, which is illegal in Massachusetts without permits.

The group, a spokesperson said, were from Rhode Island and were heading to Maine for training. The men were questioned, and licenses and permits were requested. After that, some fled into the woods, according to state police.

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Officials in Reading, Stoneham, and Wakefield initiated a “shelter-in-place” in their communities due to the armed men fleeing into and around their communities. The northbound side of the highway has been closed to traffic since.

The standoff ended around 10:30 a.m.

One member of the group, known as Rise of the Moors, posted two livestreams during the standoff around 2 a.m.

And again at 4 a.m.

“I reassured them that we are not sovereign citizens,” the man said. “I reassured them that we are not black identity extremists. I reassured them that we are not anti-police. I reassured them that we are not anti-government. I reassured that these men here would not be pointing guns at them.”

The man, who also said he was recording all of the incident with a body cam, said their vehicles were full of camping equipment and they had no plans to stop in the state but needed to in order to fill their vehicles with fuel. He cited federal law and court cases that he believed allowed them to travel, armed, through Massachusetts, without being detained.

“We are abiding by the peaceful journey laws of the United States,” he said.

A WCVB-TV reporter stated live on television that Nashua had sent its SWAT team to assist. At 7:40 a.m., the department’s daily dispatch log, an online tool used by police to be somewhat transparent with activities after the department ended its live-over-the-air scanner feed, stated a “give assistance” call was in place, confirming the activity.

However, Lt. Carlos Camacho of the Nashua Police Department said that the television report was not completely accurate. He said the department was asked to lend its Bearcat toward the effort and two officers drove it to Massachusetts for state police and NEMLC to use. The officers are not involved in the standoff or hunt for the other members of the group, Camacho said.

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