Anti-immigration activist from Everett arrested in Arizona killings

By Scott North and Jackson Holtz, Herald Writers

TUCSON, Ariz. -- An outspoken anti-immigration activist who was at the center of a series of violent crimes in Everett earlier this year has been arrested in Arizona in connection with the home-invasion killings of a man and his 9-year-old daughter.

Shawna Forde, 41, is charged with two-counts of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree burglary and one count of aggravated assault, according to a press release from the Pima County Sheriff's Department in Arizona.

The killings were believed to be premeditated. Forde and the two others allegedly went into the home intending to steal money and drugs, the press release said.

Raul Flores, 29, and his 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia, were killed when a group of armed people, including a woman, forced their way into the home on May 30, officials said.

The child's mother traded gunfire with the attackers. She survived, but remains hospitalized with gunshot wounds.

Forde was arrested without incident in Sierra Vista, a few miles from the Mexican border.

The shootings occurred in Arivaca, about 60 miles south of Tucson and 10 miles north of the Mexican border.

It is in an area where Forde and her group, Minuteman American Defense, have been operating. Forde has said her group conducts desert surveillance and undercover investigations aimed at curbing illegal immigration and drug smuggling.

Suspect in murders headed Minuteman group

By Daniel Newhauser and Dan Shearer, Green Valley News

Published: Friday, June 12, 2009

Two of the three people arrested in connection with the May 30 murders of an Arivaca man and his daughter headed up a splinter Minuteman group, and were looking for drugs and money to fund their efforts to keep illegal immigrants and drug runners out of the country, sheriff’s officials said.

Jason Eugene Bush, 34, was arrested Thursday in Kingman; Shawna Forde, 41, was arrested Friday south of Sierra Vista; and Albert Robert Gaxiola, 42, was arrested Friday afternoon in Tucson.

All three have been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree burglary and one count of aggravated assault in connection with the murders of Raul Flores and his 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia. Flores’ wife was shot during the incident but managed to shoot one of the intruders.

“No, I did not do it,” Forde said as she was led out of the Pima County Sheriff’s Office in front of reporters Friday afternoon.

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said Forde was “still trying up until today to get together a large amount of money to further sophisticate the type of operation she’s interested in.”

“She’s, at best, a psychopath,” he said.

Officials said Forde is associated with the Minutemen American Defense group and that Bush and Gaxiola, who is from Arivaca, are associates of Forde. The group is not associated with the national, 12,000-member Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, though Forde shared the stage with Minuteman Project co-founder Jim Gilchrist at a 2007 Elks Lodge event in Washington, according to a Southern Poverty Law Center profile on her.

But her association didn’t last long, and within Minuteman group circles Forde is controversial, according to a February article from the Daily Herald in Everett, Wash.

Hal Washburn, vetting officer for Washington state chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, said Forde was encouraged to leave the group over questions about honesty and her inability to follow orders, according to the story. San Diego Minutemen lists Forde among people they won’t work with, calling her “unstable.”

Forde is listed as executive director of the Minutemen American Defense on the group’s Web site, which says its mission is, “To secure the U.S. Borders, Coastal boundaries and constitution against unlawful and unauthorized entry by all individuals, contraband and foreign military. To also increase the awareness of the devastation caused by illegal immigration to our state and country.”

Bush was listed as “operations director,” and is known as “Gunny.”

Dupnik said Bush was the shooter, under orders from Forde, and called the murders “one of the most despicable crimes that anyone in our organization has ever been associated with.”

Dupnik called it “a planned home invasion where the plan was to kill all the people inside this trailer because they might be witnesses, and rob them.” He said there are other people involved and the investigation continues.

PCSO Lt. Michael O’Connor called the killings an “assassination,” and said the shooters were looking for Flores’ other daughter, who was not at home.

Dupnik also said Raul Flores was “a large dealer” who likely had connections to large Mexican drug cartels and “has a history of being involved in narcotics.”

News of the arrests quickly spread through Arivaca on Friday evening. One woman said she knew Gaxiola and occasionally partied with him. The house where Raul and Brisenia were slain was dark, and neighbors had locked their gates as night fell.

A message from Forde on her Web site reads, “I would like to let everyone know that we are in full operation we have people coming from Florida and other parts of the country to assist in gathering exclusive footage of drug cartel drug smuggling and humane trafficking. Our point is to let the world know that we as American citizens have a choice and a responsibility to those who have stained the ground red for our freedoms.”

Bush was shot during the incident and was taken to a Kingman hospital after his arrest. He was also being held on a probation violation warrant out of Washington state for auto theft.

Scott Anderson, who belongs to the 80-member Green Valley chapter of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, said he has never heard of Forde or her group, but knows others will associate his group with theirs.

“I figured something like this was going to happen,” he said Friday evening. “We’re all going to be painted with the same broad brush.”

Anderson said anybody joining the national group must undergo a background check, an interview with a national officer and go through four to six hours of training.

“Our rules are very strict,” he said. “We’re doing everything above-board according to the law.”

Even before the arrests Anderson knew the Minutemen had an image problem with some people.

“I wish people could see our standard operating procedures,” he said. “We don’t impede the movement of anybody — we give them (illegal immigrants) water and medical aid just like the Samaritans do, but then we call the Border Patrol. We can’t convince people of that.”

I think I saw this (not fit for family viewing) at a booth outside a Phoenix Crossroads show a couple years back. She was so repugnant nobody would get near her table. Yep, all of us are going to be spayed with the same can of paint but at this point I don't think it matters any longer. When a snowball is this big and rolling down such a steep hill all we can do is brace for impact. Luckily most of us have been bracing for some time now.

Weaver

Off course, STATEmedia will put this entire case into a centrifuge and spin it until every single shred of truth and honesty has been purged from this test tube.

People who are addicted to STATEmedia opium will swallow it up like a junkie on the brink of withdrawal, but folks living off the grid, away from the reaches of collectivist indoctrination, will know what really is going on.

We need to help in distributing the truth far and wide just in case the collectivists centrifuge this whole thing. This issue, and whatever comes out of it, will be absolutely essential to what the public and the masses think about patriots and the Constitutional militias.

Oh, BTW, regarding the death of that innocent child, once the cartels decide to have revenge, the lifespan of these three pricks would last less than several hours. If they are let back on the streets, they will still catch up with them in no time. IN PRISON? Whoah, thats a whole other story. The cartels literally rule the prisons, and a single order traveling from the top brass to the hit squad moves faster than the speed of light.

Robbing a drug dealer to finance your private "border patrol"? Some family of alleged drug dealer get shot up in the commission of a home-invasion robbery? How could any of this be the work of the good guys?

Mom with a gun gets off a few shots, with at least one hit! Good job.

Shawna and her posse are gonna get some time to ponder their actions. Unless, they are already under the loving care of some alphabet agencies.

Cheers.

I don't share the concerns of the Minutemen and other similar groups, but they've been at their operations long enough now that it's clear they're not - as an organization, anyway - the rabid Mexican-bashers they were originally billed as. They don't deserve the bad press they're about to get. It's true that 'you're known by the company you keep,' even if you didn't choose to keep that company and it's your enemies doing the associating. Damned shame, really.

Trouble finds Shawna Forde?

Sounds to me more like Shawna Forde went seeking trouble, and found it, in spades.

The MAD group looks to be just a front to cover their illicit activities.

Is it just me, or does anyone else see more and more of these broad-brush opportunities popping up these days?

What was it that Rahm Emanuel said? Something about "never letting a serious crisis go to waste"?

Hmmm...

Yep, the "news" is already glossing over the facts. The condensed version in the print copy of the Sunday Houston (Tx) Chronicle mention only that she was part of MAD, which was "a" Minuteman group, completely omitting anything about how the other groups had distanced themselves from her and her cohorts. (The version in their online archives is the same AP news feed.)

Let's see, home invation, murder, theft of drugs and money.

The Headline should have read, "Swana Forde Arrested for Impersonating a COP."

It's always hard for news to be nuanced, especially when it's extremely unlikely that anyone in the news is on the inside or in the know when it comes to these organizations. I'm glad I caught this before I caught the news in the newspapers.

The only difference between Shawna Forde and Chris Simcox is.....Simcox never used violence and murder to steal money. They both have criminal convictions......Simcox got his while patrolling for illegal aliens unlawfully armed in a National Park.

So, whos the right-wing-nut?

"Simcox got his while patrolling for illegal aliens unlawfully armed in a National Park."

Not a crime anymore.