May 29, 1998: Three Suspected Militiamen Kill, Wound Police Officers; Two Commit Suicide

Three militia members and anti-government survivalists, Alan Monty Pilon, Robert Mason, and Jason McVean, fresh from stealing a water truck, shoot and kill police officer Dale Claxton in Cortez, Colorado, and wound two others as the officers try and fail to apprehend them. The three fire more than 500 rounds from their semi-automatic weapons at the officers. They then flee into the high desert of the “Four Corners,” the no-man’s land where the boundaries of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico meet; Mason will later fire on two other law enforcement officials, wounding one. The bodies of Mason and Pilon will later be found, dead of self-inflicted gunshot wounds. McVean remains at large, though some suspect he may have died also. The three are described as “patriots” who hate the US government and believe civilization will destroy itself at the turn of the century. [New York Times, 8/3/1998; New York Times, 8/23/1998; Southern Poverty Law Center, 6/2001]