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
Although it is wise to consider if Andrew Mickel did the Tom Wales murder on October 11 2001, I have other ideas for these reasons:
Was Mickel seriously involved with police or US prosecutors in October 2001? He had only just arrived at the ultra-liberal brainwashing school, Evergreen State College (just south of Tacoma) that fall.
Had he ever killed prior to this month? His arrest on April 20 2002 during the "A20 in Seattle" antiwar demonstration was a peaceful protest - for blocking a sidewalk.
I actually believe Mickel had met John Muhammad.
Mickel was arrested carrying a [fake?] Washington driver's license with his picture and the name McCrae. Was it legit? [probably not], so who else in the area was an expert at manufacturing fake Washington State drivers licenses? - John Muhammad.
...
I suggest they met after April 20 2002. There is even an Evergreen State College BRANCH CAMPUS in the heart of Tacoma on Martin Luther King Dr.
And Muhammad was ranting and raving in this timeframe to anyone like-minded about killing policemen.
As for the Oct 11 2001 assassination, that was the NIGHT BEFORE Muhammad was ordered to appear in Tacoma to sign a restraining order. So I prefer to theorize: Muhammad-dunnit..., and have I listed this murder with the Muhammad/Malvo Timelines...
Here is a pertinent section of those timelines...
August 31 2001 - Bellingham WA - Muhammad was living here with his kids when they were yanked away from him by police.
September 04 2001 - Tacoma WA - Muhammad was required to appear for a hearing in which he lost his 3 children for good to his ex-wife. He was extremely bitter over this, enough-so to murder Isa Nichol's neice in February as payback for Isa's involvement. Many analysts today suggest this event is what made Muhammad snap. 
September 2001 - Tacoma - Muhammad obtains a pro bono lawyer in Tacoma and visits him once a week for the next several months. [Note that Seattle is directly between Bellingham and Tacoma].
September 11 2001 - The WTC Attacks
~September 14 2001 - Bellingham - Muhammad is almost in a barfight with the fisherman Drew Sandilands at the Horseshoe Restaurant because Muhammad defended Al Queda and the WTC bombers.
September 2001 - Bellingham/Seattle - Muhammad is seen travelling from Bellingham often; Sometimes by airline, and sometimes by bus. But in either case his travels took him first to Seattle and then on to other places.
September 18 2001 - The first of the Anthrax letters is mailed from Trenton NJ, just five miles from Sure Shot Auto Sales where the sniper-Caprice is later purchased.
October 10 2001 - The 3rd Anthrax victim hits the news in Florida. Even if Muhammad is NOT involved with anthrax, this is all over the news in early October, further embolding Muhammad. 
October 11 2001 10:30pm - Seattle - Assistant U.S. attorney Tom Wales is assassinated in his home in the Queen Anne Hill neighborhood. Someone fired four quick shots thru a basement window with a handgun, hitting prosecutor Wales as he sat in front of his computer. Shell casings were found at the scene and neighbors saw a man leaving.
Wales had hundreds of powerful enemies. The case has never been solved despite a $1 Million reward. [Muhammad came into large amounts of unexplained cash about this time and often traveled by airline. Did he resume his forgery trade? or had he taken up as a paid assassin?]
October 12 2001 - Tacoma - Muhammad is required to appear and sign a restraining order that day promising to stay away from Mildred and his kids.
October 17 2001 or later - Bellingham - Malvo joins Muhammad. [I believe Malvo did not choose to leave his mother on his own, but Muhammad flew to Florida about October 16th, and returned with Malvo by airline]
November 2001 - Muhammad starts visiting gunsmiths trying to obtain silencers and to modify a rifle to collapse into a small case.