Militia member 'filled with rage,' plotted ambush

The Grand Rapids Press ^ | Friday, October 17, 2003 | Ed White

[FourPeas]

Militia member 'filled with rage,' plotted ambush

Friday, October 17, 2003

By Ed White
The Grand Rapids Press

It was a rural arsenal fit for war.

After the peaceful arrest of a Cadillac-area man, authorities who searched his 40-acre compound discovered a stunning collection of firepower, including an anti-aircraft gun capable of firing 550 rounds per minute up to four miles away.

A van and a Jeep Cherokee, described by the suspect as his "war wagons," had machine guns inside, with one "locked, loaded and ready to go," Assistant U.S. Attorney Lloyd Meyer said.

Agents found an underground bunker, thousands of rounds of ammunition, hundreds of pounds of gunpowder and manuals on guerrilla warfare, "booby traps" and explosives.

There were chilling pictures of President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with the cross-hairs of a high-

see MILITIA, A4

powered rifle scope drawn over them, Meyer said.

Norman Somerville, 43, was arrested last week on federal gun and drug charges as he shopped at Home Depot in Cadillac. Authorities then spent the weekend combing his property in Wexford County's Antioch Township, about 20 miles northwest of Cadillac.

Details of the search were disclosed in a court document filed Thursday in federal court in Grand Rapids, four days before a judge will decide whether Somerville should remain in jail while his case is pending.

Somerville was "filled with rage and intended to ambush people, mowing them down in a hail of machine-gun bullets," Meyer said, quoting informants. He belongs to a "self-styled radical militia unit" whose members are upset over the death of Scott Woodring, the prosecutor said.

Woodring was the Newaygo County man fatally shot by state police during the summer, days after a trooper died while trying to serve him with an arrest warrant.

State police were told in September that Somerville wanted to cause a car accident, then "ambush and kill" any responding officers with a machine gun mounted in his Jeep, Meyer wrote in the court document.

An unidentified source, described as one of Somerville's "trusted associates," feared he had become "mentally unbalanced and would kill an innocent person or be killed," Meyer said.

Somerville may face additional charges linked to the search of his property, although Meyer declined to elaborate.

Two years ago, Somerville moved to Wexford County from elsewhere in northern Michigan. He served in the Army from 1978 to 1984 and was trained as an intelligence analyst assigned to the elite Special Forces.

During a brief court appearance last week in Grand Rapids, Somerville said: "The people will have their day. ... There's a quiet civil war going on in the country."

In Antioch Township, five miles outside Mesick, neighbors said he is not the type to share a cup of sugar.

"We told our kids to stay off his property. There was gunfire a lot," said Lynda Sherburne, a former township clerk who lives nearby. "Who knows where the stray bullets are going.

"He got angry very easily. No contact with him was the best contact."

Sherburne said her nephew's house shook as state and federal authorities detonated explosives found on Somerville's property.

"I don't think anyone realized he was stockpiling back there," she said.

[B Knotts]

Do you live on a "compound?" :-)

[FourPeas]

Don't go out of your way. I can google it later tonight.

[rabidralph]

So, what's Norman's FReeper name?

[Just another Joe]

I would agree that this man is hardly a poster boy for RKBA but that wasn't the question you asked.

[RKV]

In order for a letter of marque to be granted there has to be a privately owned warship to start with. I am not excusing this man's crime. I am just saying that the 2nd Amendment protects "arms" of significant military usage. How else does a well-regulated (i.e. well equiped) militia protect the security of the free state?

[MineralMan]

"Do you live on a "compound?" :-)
"

Nah. And none of my firearms are banned. They're all well-oiled and frequently fired, though. That is, except for the Sharps rifle. That one will never be fired again, I think.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Yes it did, but it didn't envision any restrictions on the incarceration of people who are clearly insane. This played out exactly the way it should have. Person starts behaving and talking in ways that belie dangerous insanity. Free citizen becomes alarmed and decides to alert authorities. Authorities arrest dangerously insane person.

[from occupied ga]

anti-aircraft gun capable of firing 550 rounds per minute up to four miles away.

Translates to legal BMG .50 in antiaircraft mount. Collectors and amateur shooters like these better than the ground mounts because you don't have to sit or lie down on the ground to fire the gun. Liberal lies and attempts to incite hysteria

[claudiustg]

"Somerville may face additional charges linked to the search of his property, although Meyer declined to elaborate. "

So, what are the charges so far? Maybe they could tell us that. Or is it a secret?

[ArrogantBustard]

Of course he lives in a compound. All gun owners do. And they always have a frightening or alarming arsenal. And their high-powered assault pistols can all shoot two or three miles. At least. And they have hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Like, maybe, 3 boxes of .22LR...

This guy may well be an arsehole, but that fact (if true), has no bearing on what is included in RKBA. And cannon are definitely included. Always have been. Check out Knob Creek some time...

[B Knotts]

Like, maybe, 3 boxes of .22LR...

Isn't that "stockpiling high-powered ammunition?"

[from occupied ga]

This guy sounds like a low level lunatic and loser. With the President and VP in his cross-hairs.

Remember the press has an agenda here. They're trying to demonize him and by proxy all gun owners. Hence farm becomes "compound" Heresay from unnamed sources is quoted as gospel

And y'all who are crying loser took the bait.

[Pro-Bush]

Somerville was "filled with rage and intended to ambush people, mowing them down in a hail of machine-gun bullets," Meyer said, quoting informants. He belongs to a "self-styled radical militia unit" whose members are upset over the death of Scott Woodring, the prosecutor said.

What good is a militia if you have gov informants as members?

[MineralMan]

"I wonder if the 1st Amendment had your asinine comment in mind?"

Actually, yes, it did, but the First Amendment doesn't really apply here on FR, you see.

[ArrogantBustard]

Forgot that one... Stockpiling.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Because there are whackjob constimatooshinalists out there who ould start wigging out and downing planes in some psychotic rage about flag fringe, the illuminati other some other hopeless stupidity.

[Centurion2000]

I wonder if the 2nd Amendment had anti-aircraft weapons in mind?

Considering that it was legal for a provate citizen to own the equivalent of a Missouri class battleship in 1800, I'd say that it did.

Letters of marque and reprisal = private citizens with warships.

[Fierce Allegiance]

As aircrraft weren't around, the capability to eliminate them isn't exluded.

I say I should have the right to thermonuclear wepaons under the 2nd ammendment.

[from occupied ga]

downing planes in some psychotic rage about flag fringe

What planes did he down?

[cardinal4]

Remember, just because he's a gun owner, doesn't make him a roll model.

Or a Role model, even.....:)