US News

Militia ‘plot’

DETROIT — Nine alleged members of a Christian militia group that was girding for battle with the Antichrist were charged yesterday with plotting to kill a police officer and slaughter scores more by bombing the funeral — all in hopes of touching off an uprising against the federal government.

Seven men and one woman believed to be part of the Michigan-based “Hutaree” were arrested over the weekend in raids in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. The ninth suspect was arrested last night in rural southern Michigan.

FBI agents moved quickly against Hutaree because its members were planning an attack sometime in April, prosecutors said. Authorities seized guns in the raids, but would not say whether they found any explosives.

David Brian Stone, 44, of Clayton, Mich., and one of his sons, David Jr., were identified as the ringleaders.

Stone, who was known as “Captain Hutaree,” organized the group in paramilitary fashion and members were assigned secret names, prosecutors said. Ranks ranged from “radoks” to “gunners,” according to the group’s Web site.

“It started out as a Christian thing,” Stone’s ex-wife, Donna Stone, said. “You go to church. You pray. You take care of your family. I think David started to take it a little too far.”

Donna said her ex-husband pulled her son into the movement. Another of David Stone’s sons, Joshua, was arrested last night at a home 30 miles from the Michigan raid.

Prosecutors said David Stone had identified certain law-enforcement officers near his home as potential targets.

He and other members discussed setting off bombs at a police funeral, using a fake 911 call to lure an officer to his death, killing a cop after a traffic stop, or attacking the family of an officer, according to the indictment.

After such attacks, the group allegedly planned to retreat to “rally points” protected by trip-wired explosives for a violent standoff with the law.

“It is believed by the Hutaree that this engagement would then serve as a catalyst for a more widespread uprising against the government,” the indictment said.