Shooters Carried Arsenal, Supplies Into Sunday Rampage
June 9, 2014
Jerad and Amanda Miller left their downtown apartment Sunday morning loaded for a long fight.
A law enforcement source familiar with the investigation said the Millers had a small arsenal and survivalist gear in two bags when they entered a northeast Las Vegas Wal-Mart Sunday.
The Millers entered the store with one shotgun and four handguns, including the two they took from the Las Vegas police officers they ambushed and killed at a nearby CiCi’s Pizza. Their bags also contained about 200 rounds of ammunition, knives, first aid supplies, camouflage clothing and military-issued rations known as MREs.
Investigators have security footage of both the shootings at CiCi’s and Wal-Mart.
Both Jerad, 31, and Amanda, 22, appeared to be “cool and calm” during the shooting spree, the law enforcement source said. There was no indication yet that they were using drugs that day, though a toxicology report is being done.
During a news conference late Monday morning, senior police officials called the attack an isolated incident, but said officers will take extra precautions as they patrol the valley in the coming days.
The couple may have been planning a larger attack on an unidentified court building, but police said Monday the two appeared to be working alone and not part of a larger plot.
Jerad and Amanda Miller had been staying with a friend at a small apartment complex at 110 South Bruce St. They had rented their own unit there, but had to move out.
Kelley Fielder lived next door to the Millers and called them her “best friends.” She said she didn’t know they were “that crazy.”
She was holding documents for the couple that included detailed plans to take over a courthouse and execute public officials. The file box full of documents, along with three empty rifle cases and an empty box for handcuffs, were confiscated by investigators during a search of Fielder’s apartment.
The Millers simultaneously executed two Las Vegas police officers Sunday, according to a police official with knowledge of the investigation into the rampage that left two officers and a citizen dead, and the suicides of the Millers.
Officers Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor Soldo, 31, were in their seats at CiCi’s Pizza, 309 N. Nellis Blvd., at about 11:20 a.m. Sunday when shooters identified Jerad and Amanda Miller entered the rear of the restaurant.
The police official said neither officer had a chance to return fire. The entire attack was caught on surveillance video, police said Monday.
Jerad Miller then covered the officers with the Gadsden flag, a yellow banner with a coiled snake above the words, “Don’t tread on Me,” and placed a manifesto with a swastika symbol on one officer’s body.
The flag is named for Christopher Gadsden, a Revolutionary War general who designed it. It has recently come back in vogue as an adopted symbol of the American tea party movement.
A DEADLY MISSION
The couple had left their Bruce Street apartment about 4:30 a.m., telling neighbors they planned to murder cops, police said. They were armed with several handguns and a shotgun, and carried several hundred rounds of ammunition.
“He knew he wasn’t going to survive that day,” an official with knowledge of the investigation said. “Cops were going to die, and he was going to die.”
After the shooting, the couple headed toward a nearby Wal-Mart, where Jerad Miller was confronted by Joseph Robert Wilcox, 31, of Las Vegas. Wilcox was legally carrying a concealed pistol. Wilcox was unaware that Amanda Miller, who was pushing a shopping cart, was involved in the incident and “lying in wait,” the official said.
She slipped behind Wilcox and shot him at close range.
“He had no idea the wife was walking behind him,” the police official said of the slain man. “This guy (Wilcox) was not some idiot with a gun. To me, he was a hero. He was trying to stop an active shooter.”
Police said this morning that Wilcox was killed without firing a shot.
Officers exchanged gunfire with the couple in the store’s automotive section. Oil and antifreeze spilled onto the floor creating a messy scene.
In the last moments of their lives, Jerad and Amanda turned and faced each other and spoke, though it is unclear what they said. She then shot him several times before shooting herself in the head. Jerad made some movements afterwards but died there. Amanda was showing signs of life and was taken to a hospital, but died soon after.
BUNDY RANCH VISIT
The official said both Millers went to the Bundy Ranch near Bunkerville in April, hoping to join a militia standoff with federal agents who were trying to remove Cliven Bundy’s cattle from federal land.
Miller on Facebook said Bundy’s ranch was “under siege,” and he hoped to help save the rancher “and his family from Federal Government slaughter.”
Reno television station KRNV interviewed Miller, who they identified as “Jarad Miller,” near Bundy’s ranch.
He told the station: “I feel sorry for any federal agents that want to come here and try to push around or anything like that. I really don’t want violence toward them but if their gonna come and bring violence to us, well, if that’s the language they want to speak, we’ll learn it.”
Miller was dressed in camouflage and wearing a T-shirt advertising Gordon Martines for Clark County Sheriff. Martines is a former Metro detective who claims on his campaign Facebook page to be a lifetime member of the Oath Keepers, a patriot group that rallied to Bundy’s side during the standoff.
On his Google+ account, Jerad Miller said he was shunned by the Bundy Ranch group for being a felon. He posted that he and Amanda “sold everything” they had and quit their jobs to go to the ranch.
“As far as I am concerned my government is a fascist enemy,”…. “My family has bled for this nation and our freedoms and I will not let their sacrifice go unanswered without my own sacrifice.”
Ammon Bundy, one of Cliven Bundy’s sons, initially told The Associated Press that it is possible the Millers were at the ranch during the standoff with federal agents, but that “we have not found anybody that recognizes them.”
He later told AP that Jerad and Amanda Miller were there but were asked to leave after a few days because they were “very radical” and did not “align themselves” with the protest’s main issues.
“Not very many people were asked to leave,” Bundy said. “I think they may have been the only ones.”
A CRIMINAL PAST
Jerad Dwain Miller had a lengthy criminal history dating back at least to 2000 that saw him in and out of jail on felony and misdemeanor charges in both Washington and his home state of Indiana.
In 2010 and 2007, Jerad Miller was convicted of drug dealing and possession charges related to marijuana.
In between those criminal cases he married Amanda Miller in September 2012, Lafayette, Ind., court records show.
Jerad Miller also was arrested in 2009 on a battery charge by Tippecanoe County, Ind., police. He was later found not guilty.
In February 2011, he was arrested on a strangulation battery charge in Dearborn County, Ind., though the result of that case is unclear.
Jerad Miller also was no stranger to police in Benton County, Wash. District Court records there show he was convicted of obstructing a public officer and DUI in August 2002. In April of that year he was found guilty of assault with intent to cause injury.
In June 2001, he was convicted of third-degree malicious mischief. In February 2001 he was convicted of third-degree theft. In 2000, he was convicted of third-degree malicious mischief.
In 2001, he was convicted in Benton County Superior Court of taking a motor vehicle without permission and harassment.
An apparent relative of Jerad Miller with an address in Richland, Wash., did not answer calls Monday.
A man who answered the phone at the home of one of his relatives in Lafayette, Ind., said “at this time there is no comment.”
Amanda Miller does not appear to have a criminal history. In a post on her Facebook page from May 23, 2011, she writes: “to the people in the world…your lucky i can’t kill you now but remember one day one day i will get you because one day all hell will break lose and i’ll be standing in the middle of it with a shot gun in one hand and a pistol in the other.”
Someone who answered the phone at her family home in Lafayette quickly hung-up on a reporter.
The two were known to dress up as comic book characters and pose with tourists on Fremont Street. They can be seen in photos made up as the Joker and his girlfriend, Harley Quinn, from the Batman series.
James Holmes, suspect in the 2012 murder of 12 people in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater, told reportedly police after the shooting that he was the Joker.
PRIOR THREATS
In January the Millers were interviewed by federal law enforcement officers after they threatened to “shoot up” a Department of Motor Vehicles office in that state.
On Jan. 1 Amanda Miller posted on Facebook that “Today’s the big day” for a move to Las Vegas.
Jerad Miller’s Facebook page, peppered with several pro-gun rights posts, showed a growing distaste for government.
In early May, Jerad Miller posted a statement foreshadowing the shooting.
“There is no greater cause to die for than liberty. To die for that cause is easy, to live for it is another matter. I will willingly die for liberty. Death, in a sense is freedom from tyranny. Death, is the easy way out. Most notably is the “suicide by cop” routine. Yes, standing before despots is dangerous and most likely does not end well for you. I know this, my wife knows this. Soon they will come for us, because they don’t like what we think, and what we say. They don’t like the fact that we, simply will not submit to fascist rule. We don’t have much, but we are willing to sacrifice everything…….for you, for your freedoms. Even if you wouldn’t let us have ours. We know who we are and what we stand for, do you?”
On June 3, after Attorney General Eric Holder announced the creation of a domestic terrorism task force, Miller posted “Well if you have been waiting for the thought police, here they are.”
Jerad Miller’s last post on the social media website, time-stamped at 4 a.m. Saturday reads “The dawn of a new day. May all of our coming sacrifice be worth it.”
VIGIL, DONATION ACCOUNT PLANS
Local pastors and community leaders have scheduled a candlelight vigil for 6 p.m. today to honor the three men shot and killed Sunday.
The vigil will be held on the corner of Stewart Avenue and North Nellis Boulevard, Troy Martinez, senior pastor at East Vegas Christian Center said. The event is expected to last until about 8 p.m.
Las Vegas police have set up an officer down fund at
www.injuredpoliceofficers.com for the families of Beck and Soldo. Anyone interested in donating to the can send funds to Wells Fargo account 8754899923 or Nevada State Bank account 905202081.
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