A standoff between Massachusetts State Police and “several heavily armed men” wearing what police called tactical vests and military-style uniforms ended Saturday in 11 arrests.
The overnight standoff, which happened after a police traffic stop on Interstate 95, led to a nearby shelter-in-place order. The men, who were wearing body cameras and claimed they were headed to Rhode Island for “training,” according to Massachusetts State Police Col. Christopher Mason, were carrying long rifles and pistols.
The incident started at 1:30 a.m. Saturday when a trooper saw two vehicles with hazard lights on. The Wakefield Police Department shared that the men claimed to be “from a group that does not recognize our laws,” and Mason said the men did not have licenses on them. Eventually, several people ran into the woods, as two were arrested. At that point, as state police tweeted around 5:30 a.m., the group was “refusing to comply with orders to provide their information and put down their weapons.”
“Through our hostage negotiation team, we are talking with the subjects – some that are in the woods, some that are in the vehicles in the breakdown lane where the original interaction occurred – and we are hopeful that we are able to resolve this peacefully with them,” Mason said, as CNN reports.
State police report that 11 people involved were eventually arrested and that they’ll be conducting “sweeps of their 2 vehicles and woods.”
