by Ted Robbins
National Public Radio
All Things Considered
June 17, 2009
Two of the three people charged with killing a Hispanic man and his daughter in Arizona had ties to a group that strongly opposes illegal immigration.
Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik says the motive behind the killings was robbery — and he believes the money was to fund the suspects' anti-immigration activity.
Raul Flores, 29, and his 9-year-old daughter were shot in the head May 30 after a group of people dressed in camouflage entered their home in the small southern Arizona town of Arivaca. The girl was apparently shot because she was a witness. Her mother, whose name is not being released, was shot in the leg.
The woman was on the phone with a 911 operator when the attackers returned. She had a pistol and fired at the attackers. She wounded one man, but the group got away. Then late last week, Dupnik announced the three arrests and discussed the motive.
"The husband who was murdered has a history of being involved in narcotics and there was an anticipation that there would be a considerable amount of cash at this location, as well as the possibility of drugs," Dupnik said.
One of the three suspects lived in the area. But the other two, Shawna Forde and Jason Bush, are leaders of an anti-illegal-immigrant group in Washington state called Minutemen American Defense. Its Web site says it secures the U.S. border from human and drug trafficking.
Three years ago, Forde appeared on a local PBS TV program in Yakima, Wash. "I know the Minutemen and many other organizations will not stop," Forde said. "We will start at a local level and work our way up. We will not stop until we get the results that we need to have."
The two largest Minuteman organizations — the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and the Minuteman Project — said Forde and Bush are not associated with them.
However, Stephen Eichler, executive director of the Southern California-based Minuteman Project, said that Forde wrote articles that were posted on the Minuteman Project Web site. They've been removed. Eichler said he and Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist are horrified by the Arizona killings and by some of the people their movement has attracted.
"There's a lot of racists getting into movements because there are a lot of groups that feel threatened today which are very right wing, very conservative. And they feel threatened that our nation is moving in a different direction than it has in, say, the past 30 or 40 years," Eichler said. "So, instead of being reasonable about that, they become hostile."
Late Tuesday, a sheriff's captain said more arrests may be made in the Arizona case.
In addition, Bush has been charged with killing a homeless Hispanic man in Washington state 12 years ago and is a suspect in at least one other home invasion.
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