Anti-system father, his son killed officers

LITTLE ROCK — A father and son passing through Arkansas shot and killed two West Memphis police officers in a traffic stop before dying themselves in a hail of gunfire, the Arkansas State Police confirmed Friday.

Father Jerry R. Kane Jr., 45, of Forest, Ohio, and son Joseph T. Kane, 16, died Thursday after law enforcement officers riddled their white minivan with bullets about 100 feet from the entrance to a Wal-Mart in West Memphis, state police spokesman Bill Sadler said Friday.

West Memphis Police Department officers Brandon Paudert, 39, and Bill Evans, 38, died in the traffic-stop shootings. Crittenden County Sheriff Dick Busby and Chief Deputy W.A. Wren were wounded shortly after when the Kanes opened fire in the parking lot of the Wal-Mart.Busby and Wren remained hospitalized Friday.

The elder Kane, who had a criminal record, had been traveling the country with his son talking about ways people can eliminate their mortgages. Their online schedule shows that they had most recently been in Las Vegas.

In videos and audio clips posted on Kane’s website, he expresses anti-bank and antigovernment views.

They included denying the validity of U.S. currency, denying individual responsibility for debt owed to banks and denying the power of the state to sanction marriage.

The nonprofit Anti-Defamation League linked Kane to the “sovereign citizen movement,” a loosely associated group of people who believe that the U.S. government is illegitimate and has no authority.

In the clips, Kane calls banks “dirty rotten bastards”and refers to law enforcement officers as “Nazis.”

In one clip delivered during a 2009 seminar in California, Kane said while laughing that the way to handle a troublesome female Internal Revenue Service agent is to catch her when she is drunk and “beat her ass.”

“Violence doesn’t solve anything, OK. It’s not violence that we’re after. The Bible even tells us that if you’re going to go and make war against somebody, you have to kill their sheep and their goats and their chickens and their babies and their wives. OK? You have to kill them all,” Kane said.

“So what we’re after here is not fighting; it’s conquering. I don’t want to have to kill anybody, but if they keep messing with me, that’s what is going to have to come out.

“That’s what it’s going to come down to is I’m going to have to kill. And if I have to kill one, then I’m not going to be able to stop, I just know it. I mean I have an addictive personality. I haven’t had a drink in 18 years because I can’t handle this s***.”

THE ELDER KANE’S RECORD

Available police records from Ohio show that Kane had no previous arrests for violent crimes.

Miamisburg, Ohio, Police Department Capt. Ron Hess said Friday that his department arrested Kane in May 2007 on a felony forgery charge after he tried to use what he called “a loophole in the Social Security” system to buy a car without paying for it.

“We found this guy not to be a believer of our current system of the government,” Hess said. “He didn’t recognize anyone of authority - the authority of the court, of the prosecutor’s office.”

Miamisburg detectives investigated a complaint that Kane and his then 20-year-old daughter, Jessica, tried to buy a car from a local dealership by “just passing paper” in February 2006. Jessica’s case was diverted out of the court system because she had no previous record.

But it took officers more than a year to find and arrest Jerry Kane.

Though Hess didn’t know exactly where Kane was arrested, he said U.S. marshals traced him to Arizona.

Kane posted a $10,000 bond with the help of a bondsman on May 10, 2007, Hess said. After that, an Ohio grand jury issued a forgery indictment against Kane, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

In Ohio, Hess said, there are two types of warrants. One allows officers to search only Ohio and surrounding states for a wanted person. The other allows for a nationwide search.

In Kane’s case, the warrant was regional, Hess said. It remains unserved.

Though that was the only encounter Hess’ department had with Jerry Kane, officers in neighboring Miami County arrested Kane in March 2007 on charges of obstructing official business, carrying a concealed weapon and weapons under disability.

According to online court records, Kane pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed weapon. Information about the other charges and their nature was unavailable Friday.

In an online audio recording from earlier this month, Kane described a recent arrest in New Mexico and said he spent 47 hours “kidnapped” in jail.

“I ran into a Nazi checkpoint in the middle of New Mexico, where they were demanding papers or jail,” Kane said.

New Mexico State Police troopers pulled over Kane onApril 10 at a checkpoint on Interstate 40, state police Lt. Eric Garcia said Friday.

The trooper said he asked Kane for his name over and over again. Kane refused each time, Garcia said, so the officer placed him under arrest for concealing his identity.

Garcia said an unidentified female passenger finally showed the trooper a document with Kane’s name on it, but Kane again refused to confirm his identity.

O n ce t h e off i ce r re - searched the name the woman had given him, Garcia said, he learned that Kane’s Ohio driver’s license had been suspended.

Kane said in the recording that his wife bailed him out of jail, which he called paying a “ransom.”

THURSDAY’S SHOOTINGS

Court records show that Kane failed to return to New Mexico for an April 27 court hearing, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Because it was a misdemeanor offense, Garcia said, he was unsure whether the warrant was entered into a national database.

Available records show that Kane didn’t encounter law enforcement officers again until Evans pulled him over Thursday at 11:30 a.m. along I-40 in West Memphis.

Father and son drove their white minivan onto an exit ramp, Sadler said. Paudert soon arrived to back up Evens.

Both officers, who were in full uniform, were part of a special unit that combated drug trafficking on the highways.

Someone knocked Evans to the ground, and the shooting began, Sadler said.

A broadcast for help went out quickly, and law enforcement officers from across the county converged on the area.

Terri Doyle, who lives in the apartment complex next to the Wal-Mart, reported seeing the Kanes’ minivan in the complex’s parking lot. She called police after it drove away toward the Wal-Mart.

Busby and Wren spotted the minivan about 90 minutes after the initial shooting. Sadler said the Kanes opened fire on the officers.

Police have said the Kanes, still in the minivan, were shooting a handgun and a “long rifle.” Witnesses reported hearing the firing of automatic weapons.

The gunbattle went on for about 15 minutes, witnesses said.

At one point, authorities said, Game and Fish Commission officer Michael W. Neal of Lee County rammed the Kanes’ minivan with his pickup.

After the shooting, officers dragged the Kanes’ lifeless bodies out of the minivan. The bodies lay in the Wal-Mart parking lot for hours, mostly uncovered, while investigators combed the crime scene.

Busby and Wren remained Friday night as patients at the Regional Medical Center in Memphis. Busby was in serious condition, and Wren was listed in critical condition.

Al Boals, former mayor of West Memphis, said Friday that Busby was shot once in the shoulder and Wren was shot four times in the stomach.

Wren had surgery Thursday and was scheduled for additional surgery today. Boals said Busby should go home soon.

“We’re praying for them over here,” Boals said.

Meanwhile, visitation for Paudert and Evans will be from 5-9 p.m. Sunday in West Memphis High School’s Lehr Arena, according to Roller-Citizens Funeral Home.

The funerals will also be held in the arena. Paudert’s funeral is 10 a.m. Monday. Evans funeral is 2 p.m. Monday.

Arkansas flags will fly at half-staff Monday by order of Gov. Mike Beebe.

A mixture of sadness and anger has filled West Memphis, Crittenden County Judge Melton Holt said Friday.

“Police officers never know when they approach a car,” Holt said. “They don’t know what’s on the other side of that window.

“It’s just so senseless.”

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel - a former patrol officer in Jonesboro - traveled to West Memphis on Friday to visit with families of the victims.

McDaniel and Paudert’s father, West Memphis Police Chief Bob Paudert, are friends. McDaniel said he cried Friday morning while reading accounts of the killings.

“I’m just heartbroken,” McDaniel said. “My prayers go out to the families.”

THE DAY AFTER

The Kanes’ bodies were at the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock on Friday night.

The elder Kane’s website identifies his wife as Donna Lee of Florida.

The website draws a link between the New Mexico arrest and Thursday’s traffic stop.

“I40 sounds like the good ole boy stretch-of-highway, where if they spot you, and they already [don’t] like you, you could get killed,” the website reads. “Even if you are just a Dad and son with your two dogs on your way home, minding your own business.”

The website describes Joseph Kane as a “sweet, loving young man with a charming demeanor and a warm smile.”

“Joe adored his father and was always at his side. This was a terrible tragedy for all involved,” the website says. “Ihope and pray that the truth about what really [happened] will be revealed.”

Two dogs - a Labrador mix and a Rottweiler - were in the minivan when the shooting started Thursday.

Kim Adkins, a volunteer with the Humane Society of Eastern Arkansas, said the Rottweiler never made it out of the van.

The Labrador mix, which jumped out of the van during the gunbattle, was shot at least four times, Adkins said.

The dog, named “Olie” but renamed “Valor” by the Humane Society, is in serious condition, Adkins said.

Adkins said Lee called the Humane Society on Friday morning to claim the dog. She also insisted that the dog not be neutered because Jerry Kane planned to breed the mutt, Adkins said.

Adkins said the Humane Society hopes another family can adopt the dog instead.

“Anyone who is willing to marry somebody with that much rage and hate, I don’t know I want them taking care of something that is living,” Adkins said. “I’d just rather that this dog have some better fate in life.”