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A reporter becomes part of the story

By SARAH C. VOS
Monitor staff

The voice was young, its tone matter of fact. He introduced himself as Andy, and when I asked for his story, he started to talk.

"I killed a police officer in Red Bluff, California, in an effort to draw attention to police brutality," he said.

He explained why the killing made sense, talking in long, almost academic sentences, as if we were discussing economics, not an officer dead at a gas pump. Shot three times, once in the back of the head at close range. Execution-style, the prosecutor would call it later that afternoon.

This was not a normal interview. I was in the State Room at the Holiday Inn, surrounded by FBI agents and talking to Andrew Hampton McCrae, the 23-year-old who has claimed responsibility for killing a police officer last week.

McCrae asked to talk to a Monitor reporter, and after more than two hours of negotiating, the FBI agreed that McCrae could talk to me. In return, McCrae promised to leave his fourth-floor hotel room peacefully. This is the way negotiations work: You never give the suspect anything without getting something in return.

The lead negotiator, Liane McCarthy, warned me that his voice was without emotion. That worried her. He could be suicidal, she said.

McCrae told me that he wrote a manifesto called the Declaration of Renewed American Independence. In it, he said, he argues that a consensual adult act, whether illegal or not, is a non-crime. He said that everyone in America presumed guilty of a non-crime should be free from harassment by law enforcement.

He had a copy, and he wanted me to read it. I told him I wanted to read it.

"How am I going to give it to you?" he asked.

"You'll have to come out," I said.

"I'll come out and give it to you?" It was a question.

"Yes," I said, even though I did not know how I would get it. I was not in control, and we both knew that McCrae would walk into a hallway full of FBI agents and police officers.

I had arrived at the hotel 90 minutes earlier. I came straight from home. I didn't have time to shower or eat breakfast. My legs shook as I left the house, and I slipped down my front steps. I didn't know what to expect.

While I waited I talked to guests who had been evacuated from their rooms, the hotel manger and FBI agents. I took notes because it was calming. I tried to pretend that this was just another story.

As McCrae talked, McCarthy listened on another headset. A small black suitcase with multiple phone lines coming out of it sat on a table in front of us, allowing officers around the room to hear the conversation. Beside me, one FBI agent fooled with a tape recorder, checking batteries and flipping the tape. The rattling noises were distracting.

McCarthy sat on the other side, and she motioned to me several times. She wanted me to slow down, to not take notes. She did not want me to be a reporter. She wanted me to talk McCrae out of his hotel room. She told me not to question McCrae, not to get him excited. He is calm, she said. She wanted him to stay that way.

After I told McCrae to leave his room, McCarthy instructed me, on a legal pad, to end the conversation.

I told McCrae that I had his story. I needed to get back to the office to write, I said.

"You do?" He sounded disappointed, and McCarthy motioned for me to talk more.

Anything else? I asked. McCrae paused for a moment.

"Prior to killing the police officer, I incorporated a company, Proud and Insolent Youth, and I incorporated in New Hampshire," he said.

He said he chose New Hampshire because of the state constitution, which contains the right to revolution. We talked again about how I would get his declaration. I thanked him and said goodbye.

McCrae hung up, and I was escorted from the room. Within minutes, he surrendered. Officers patted me on the back, telling me good job. An FBI investigator questioned me about the conversation. He said I might be a witness.

Later, when I got back to the office, I listened to a message from McCrae, left on a newsroom voicemail at 7:26 a.m.

"Hi, my name is Andy McCrae, and I killed a police officer in Red Bluff, California, to stop the police-state tactics that are used throughout America," he said. "And I am at the Holiday Inn in Concord, New Hampshire, right now. And the FBI are right outside my door, and I just thought the Concord Monitor might be interested to be there."

". . . So, all right, I just thought you guys would be interested in that. So, that's it," McCrae said. "I'm at the Holiday Inn, room 420. And I'm about to come out to the FBI. So that's it."

http://www.concordmonitor.com/stories/front2002/first_person_2002.shtml