The Gray Standoff On ABC 20⧸20 Part 1 Of 2 [FtkK9pWWOlQ]

...leading what they believe is the inevitable, the invasion of their compound by government forces. Their leader says they'll fight to death if they have too. Tonight for the first time I'm going to take you inside where preparations for war have been made and an eerie silence hangs in the air... We drove nearly 60 miles south of Dallas into the sun-baked ranchlands of East Texas. It is here, literally off the beaten path that we come face to face with an armed camp. Since the standoff began more than six months ago few people have been allowed past the rifles and pistols... Just keep going? ...past the locked steel gates and barbed wire into this compound

We're the first television journalists allowed inside. Hi Joe Their leader is John Joe gray a 51 year old self-proclaimed freedom fighter So we're sitting here surrounded by armed guards barbed wire Sandbags and the bunker what's going on here? Well, the harassment from the county Sheriff Department in the feds it's what gone on out there They had threatened to come in on us here a few weeks ago. He's a wanted man, indicted for the assault on two state troopers-a felony! But Gray says those are trumped up charges and he is not surrendering Now as you can see in this home video Joe his wife Alicia his children and a few supporters 17 of them in all are thumbing their noses at the authorities What will happen if they try to raid this place? We'll defend it That's all there is too

You come out after us and bring extra body bags. Those who live by the sword will die by the sword." Joe Gray's family, especially Alicia his wife of more than 30 years feels the same way. You're gonna stand behind your husband? No sir I'll stand beside my husband with him all the way I'm prepared to die for what we believe in. Who are these people and why are they so defiant, risking their lives on principle? John Joe Gray is a colonel in a paramilitary group called the Texas Militia And for years, Gray has been seen wearing camouflage outfits distributing anti-government propaganda. Sometimes to none other than the sheriff's deputies themselves I put out literature about the New World Order and what is going on and I've done that for years down here And uh...I think it upset a few people They didn't like it

Gray believes that government has taken away too many of his God-given rights. There's a new world order out there, he says Conspiring to deprive Americans of their freedom in protest He refuses to pay taxes or do anything that might enslave him to the government Do you believe you should have a driver's license Nelson? Do you believe you should have your car registered? No sir. Do you believe you should have a permit for gun Nelson? I And guns are what got Joe Gray in trouble in the first place. His problems with the law began last spring when a car he was riding in was stopped for speeding. Gray was packing a pistol, illegally according to the state trooper who pulled him over He said you got a permit? I said no sir it's my God-given right to carry and so he stepped back pulled his gun out and he said No its not! Yes there is. And that's when a scuffle began. I felt something hit me up side of face

Don't know here trying to give me a headlock or hit me I don't say it did but they wind up my mouth and you bit him I've been hung on to Joe Gray says that incident in this county was all in self-defense And even though he was indicted. He refuses to appear in court He says the judges and in fact, the entire judicial system is corrupt and conspiring against him because of those beliefs He refuses to obey the law What if everyone felt that way? Well, then it'd be a free society then wouldn't it? You'll be a free nation again like we used to. He now lives like we used too without electricity or running water mainly because he hasn't paid his bills

In this exclusive video obtained by 2020, you can see that adults and children live in a strange world where the American flag is flown upside down. The little building with the initials of federal law enforcement agencies is the family outhouse And the vehicles here sport license plates issued by a church called The Kingdom of Heaven. Throughout the compound, the adults all carry weapons. Men wear their pistols tucked inside their boots. Women coddled their rifles and their babies around the same shoulder

We had six children and as we were having them, they were growing up. Everybody said why do you have so many children? And I always said well we're building an army for God but we never knew it might turn into a literal army but they're ready they're all at peace with God As you drive around the compound, you can make out the sandbags presumably used for cover in case of an attack. And there behind a metal door...a bunker with a caution to authorities kids inside. They could see your house right from here! You hear it over and over again, an overwhelming and foreboding sense of paranoia. Police cars been out there big vans with discs on top of them been up there And maybe with good reason some of the townsfolk don't like the way that Grays live and harass them Just listen to what the Grays captured on home video a few weeks ago It's a drive-by shooting

Luckily, no one was injured and the man who was firing his rifle from the back of this truck... ...was later arrested. My God! It's a whole bunch of them. That may not be fair... At night now, the men on this encampment patrol the grounds as sentries and they also use video cameras to document any movement. Get all these money for that man? I'm kidding you Alan. And any movement at all is suspect. They turn out to be just curious reporters And there's someone else who'd like to get his hands on Joe Gray. It's his former son-in-law, who claims that among those behind the bullets and the barbed wire are the two most important people in his life... His young sons. Joe Gray is holding them here illegally. When we come back of father's anguish, his children trapped inside what will happen to them if things turn violent? Why won't the militia leader let them go

John Joe Gray is a mouse and he hides behind women and children. He's hiding behind my children. Downtown continues once again, John Quinones. We return now to East Texas, where a right-wing extremist and his followers have barricaded themselves inside an armed compound refusing to come out. It's all unfolding just an hour's drive from Waco scene of the deadly Branch Davidian standoff And not surprisingly what happened there echoes in the mind of one man His children are locked inside the compound and he can't get them out So let me ask you What would you do if they were yours?

What will this father do? Keith Tarkenton hasn't seen his two young sons since the summer of 1999. The last time I've seen them, my wife put them in the back of a truck and was beating on the glass of the window of the truck crying saying,