Militia Figure Killed After Shooting Tuesday, November 6, 2001 Last updated at 7:43:42 PM PT

By EDUARDO MONTES ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

PHOENIX -- A wanted militia figure who vowed that he would never be taken alive was killed by a law enforcement officer after he shot a sheriff's deputy trying to arrest him, authorities said Tuesday.

The deputies drew the man out of his house Monday by posing as civilians parked near his house in Eagar, about 165 miles northeast of Phoenix.

William Milton Cooper, 58, had confronted people who stopped near his home with a handgun in July and September, said Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve Volden. The deputies were serving an arrest warrant on those incidents.

Cooper turned and fled when the deputies identified themselves. He opened fire with a handgun as two deputies closed in, wounding an officer in the head, Volden said. The other officer shot Cooper.

The wounded deputy remained hospitalized Tuesday; his condition was not released.

Mark Potok, a spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks militias, said Cooper was known within the movement for his short-wave radio show and a book called "Behold a Pale Horse," in which he wrote about global conspiracies, some involving aliens.

Federal authorities said Cooper, who was always known to be armed, had spent years trying to avoid capture on a 1998 arrest warrant for tax evasion.

"He had vowed that he would not be taken alive," said Tom McCombs, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshal's Service in Phoenix.

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I've never been one to believe what I read in the papers, especially about someone who is swimming against the tide. I never heard William Cooper's radio show, I don't know if I read his book, but I have read many of his written articles and they were not about militia stuff. He was spilling governmental and military classified information. Some of it was quite far-fetched, but his credentials were good. That is the scarey part.

He will be missed.

-- Laura (LadybugWrangler@hotmail.com), November 07, 2001

Answers

Sounds like the usual government cover up to me. Get rid of the person causing the problem for the government, and then make up a story to sort of fit the facts. (Ruby Ridge, Waco, etc. etc.)

Talk to you later.

-- Bob in WI (bjwick@hotmail.com), November 08, 2001.

Hello Folks, I said it awhile back on Backwoods Home forum and I will say it here. William Cooper was not very accurate in his writing or his opinions. Let's not make a martyr our of this piece of doo-doo! Sincerely, Ernest

-- http://communities.msn.com/livingoffthelandintheozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), November 08, 2001.

I only heard the man one time on the radio. He was quite brusque to be euphemistic. He was HUMAN, not perfect, angry rightfully, too angry, wrongfully, and he contributed a lot to the knowledge base.

He was NOT a militia leader. Unfortunately, it seems he screwed up. Non the less, it is a sad thing when the frustration with this un Constiutional system leads someone to this oh so final outcome. I hope he rests in peace, and pray for the families of both men.

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), November 08, 2001.