DeLemus turned away alleged Vegas cop killers but was impressed by their 'honesty and sincerity'
A longtime leader and propagandist in the Patriot movement reports Rochester 9/12 leader Jerry DeLemus met with Las Vegas shooting suspects Amanda and Jerad Miller during the standoff with federal officials at the Bundy ranch in Nevada.
Mike Vanderboegh, founder of the Three Percenters anti-government group, was at the Bundy ranch security camp with Oath Keepers’ founder Stewart Rhodes and DeLemus, who was the camp commander. On May 1, Vanderboegh reported on the encounter with a couple who DeLemus has identified as the alleged cop killers:
One afternoon a couple showed up at the camp: a young tattooed white male wearing a holstered pistol and his girlfriend toting a shotgun. In the entrance interviews, which Jerry insisted upon mostly conducting himself, it developed that the guy was an admitted felon, but he didn’t believe that it was constitutional to deny him his firearm rights. This came with a long, sad story about how they had quit their jobs to volunteer for the Bundys and do their part.
Both Jerry and Stewart were inclined to accept their help until I called them over and explained the ramifications of accepting a self-admitted, armed felon into camp. They were impressed by the man’s ‘honesty and sincerity,’ in admitting up-front that he was a felon.
I said, among other things, that of course he admitted it. If he hadn’t, then they would have plausible deniability when later confronted about it. By stating it up front, it was actually worse for them because they could not later deny having known that fact. “How do you think that is going to sound in the grand jury?” I asked them. They changed their minds and sent the couple on their way with gas money.
The young couple, who posted extreme pro-gun, anti-government messages online, had spent a couple of days at the “lower camp” making videos and granting interviews before making their way to the main camp commanded by DeLemus. The pair returned to Las Vegas after they were turned away from the ranch. There, Jerad Miller posted an online comment confirming the details of the encounter and expressing his anger at being rejected:
I was out there but they told me and my wife to leave because I am a felon. They don’t seem to understand that they are all felons now for intimidating law enforcement with deadly weapons. So don’t tell you that they need people. We sold everything we had to buy supplies and quit our jobs to be there 24/7. How dare you ask for help and shun us dedicated patriots!
Vanderboegh called DeLemus after seeing news reports putting the shooting suspects at the Bundy ranch during the confrontation with federal officials. “Just got off the phone with Jerry Delemus, the head of the outer security operation the day that these folks were turned away,” he wrote in his Sipsey Street Irregulars blog. “These people looked to me like the couple we turned away and Jerry confirmed it. He is positive on the ID.”