Who is 'Captain Hutaree'?

Details are starting to emerge about David Brian Stone, the religious zealot who allegedly led his Michigan-based milita group to the edge of madness. The Christian Science Monitor's Will Buchanan lends perspective

David Brian Stone.
(Image credit: AP Images)

While it's still unclear what the Hutaree hoped to gain from their alleged master-plot to kill police officers, details about the Michigan militia group's enigmatic leader, David Brian Stone, have started to coalesce. In this report, The Christian Science Monitor's Will Buchanan sheds more light on "Captain Hutaree," quoting experts who theorize that Stone may have been afraid of "being put in a FEMA concentration camp." Two short excerpts:

"Members called him 'Captain Hutaree' or, somewhat cryptically, 'RD.' A federal indictment calls him the 'principal leader' of the Hutaree militia – an extremist group federal authorities say was preparing to 'levy war' against the US government by killing police officers.

"He is David Brian Stone, and early media accounts sketch a portrait of a man pulled increasing toward the militia movement and its radical fringe. His ex-wife said she left him because he 'got carried away.' Federal authorities allege that he researched how to build roadside bombs on the Internet. And at least one neighbor said the group that Mr. Stone leads had acquired a certain notoriety around town."

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"It had not started out like this, said Donna Stone, David's ex-wife.

“'It started out as a Christian thing,' Donna Stone told reporters at the preliminary court hearing Monday morning. 'You go to church. You pray. You take care of your family. I think David started to take it a little too far. He dragged a lot of people with him. When he got carried away, when he went from handguns to big guns, I was done.'"

Read the full story at The Christian Science Monitor

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SEE THE WEEK'S LATEST COVERAGE OF THE HUTAREE MILITIA:

• The Tea Party and the Hutaree: Activism vs. Extremism

• Who are the Hutaree?

• WATCH: The Hutaree training video

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