Two men who claimed to have started their own militia allegedly planned to travel to Texas to shoot at U.S. Border Patrol agents and migrants due to the current immigration crisis. At the time of their arrest, the suspects reportedly shot at FBI agents before surrendering, a federal investigation in Missouri revealed.
A federal grand jury handed down a 44-count superseding indictment on May 30 against 37-year-olf Bryan C. Perry and 33-year-old Jonathan S. O’Dell. Both men have been in federal custody since October 2022 after they allegedly shot at the FBI during a raid. According to information released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri, both men are being held without bond after a judge determined that they are “a danger to the community”.
The case began in September 2022, when the FBI received information about a series of Tik Tok videos. The videos showed one man later identified as 37-year-old Bryan C. Perry talking about carrying out an attempt to overthrow the government, court documents state.
“I am probably the only one right now that is ready to go to war against this government and I don’t mean just talk about it. I mean grab my rifle and go to DC and take this country back physically, not sit in a basement and talk about it,” Perry is quoted in a criminal complaint filed by the FBI.
Since then, Perry and O’Dell reportedly posted other videos and planned to travel to Texas to shoot at migrants and at border patrol agents. The men claimed the agents betrayed the country by allowing illegal immigration to continue, court documents stated. The men also claimed to have started a militia group where they not only planned to shoot at people in Texas but also planned to carry out attacks in Washington, D.C.
“My intentions are to go down there and basically start a war,” court documents quote Perry as saying.
According to federal prosecutors, Perry is a convicted felon unable to legally possess weapons. O’Dell was the subject of a court protective order, which meant he also could not possess a firearm.
In October the agents attempted to serve a search warrant at the home of O’Dell. When they arrived, Perry began shooting at authorities, the complaint states. Between 9 and 11 bullets struck a police armored vehicle, but no agents were injured. After a standoff authorities talked both Perry and O’Dell into surrendering.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.