Police arrest 11 armed men after highway standoff

WAKEFIELD, Mass. — An hourslong standoff with a group of heavily armed men that partially shut down Interstate 95 ended Saturday with 11 suspects in custody, Massachusetts state police said.

Two suspects were hospitalized, but police said it was for preexisting conditions that had nothing to do with the standoff.

Mass State Police Col. Christopher Mason said the suspects surrendered after tactical teams used armored vehicles to tighten the perimeter around them.

The standoff shut down a portion of I95 for much of the morning, causing major traffic backups during the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Authorities said the interstate was eventually reopened and the shelterinplace orders for the towns of Wakefield and Reading were lifted.

In Massachusetts, Interstate 95 runs from the Rhode Island line, around Boston to the New Hampshire line. Wakefield is just east of where Interstate 95 and 93 meet north of Boston.

The standoff began around 2 a.m. when police noticed two cars pulled over on I95 with hazard lights on after they had apparently run out of fuel, authorities said.

At least some of the suspects were clad in militarystyle gear with long guns and pistols, Mason said. He added that they were headed to Maine from Rhode Island for “training.”

In a video posted to social media Saturday morning, a man who did not give his name, but said he was from a group called Rise of the Moors, broadcast from Interstate 95 in Wakefield.

“We are not antigovernment. We are not antipolice, we are not sovereign citizens, we’re not Black identity extremists,” said the man, who appeared to be wearing militarystyle equipment. “As specified multiple times to the police that we are abiding by the peaceful journey laws of the United States.”

The website for the group says they are “Moorish Americans dedicated to educating new Moors and influencing our Elders.”

“You can imagine 11 armed individuals standing with long guns slung on an interstate highway at 2 in the morning certainly raises concerns and is not consistent with the firearms laws that we have in Massachusetts,” Mason said.

The men refused to put down their weapons or comply with authorities’ orders, claiming to be from a group “that does not recognize our laws” before taking off into a wooded area, police said. Mason said he understood the suspects, who did not have firearms licenses, have a different perspective on the law.

“I appreciate that perspective,” he said. “I disagree with that perspective at the end of the day, but I recognize that it’s there.”

Police and prosecutors are working to determine what charges the members of the group will face.

The suspects are expected to appear in court in Woburn on Tuesday, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said.

Mason said the “selfprofessed leader” of the group wanted it to be known that the men are not antigovernment.

“I think the investigation that follows from this interaction will provide us more insight into what their motivation, what their ideology is,” Mason said.

Mason said he had no knowledge of the group.