Neo-Nazi Skinhead Arrested in Minnesota with Weapons and Drugs
A member of the Hammerskins, a neo-Nazi skinhead gang, was wearing a bullet-proof vest and carrying an assault rifle with 1,200 rounds of ammunition and drugs when he was arrested this week in Minnesota, court documents say.
Samuel David Shoen, 35, of Hastings, Minn., told his associates that he wouldn’t be arrested without a gun battle. He shouted, “I’m not going to jail, I’m not going to jail,” after he saw police following them on Tuesday, court documents say.
He is being held under $1 million bail in the Ramsey County Jail in St. Paul on state charges of felony possession of controlled substances and possession of a firearm by an ineligible person, records show.
A warrant was issued after authorities in Minnesota learned from an informant that Shoen reportedly was carrying a fully automatic Uzi submachine gun with a silencer and had dozens of grenades he was trying to sell for $375 apiece, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported in yesterday’s editions.
A criminal complaint says Shoen was affiliated with the Hammerskins and, when he previously was in prison, had close ties to a prison gang called the Native Mob.
Shoen was convicted in 1998 for terroristic threats and in 2002 for being a felon in possession of a firearm, both in Dakota County. Federal authorities may now consider filing separate charges against Shoen.
The complaint says the informant tried to buy grenades from Shoen, but later learned they had been traded for marijuana. Then Shoen offered to sell an Uzi, which actually was a MAC-10, with a 36-round magazine and an illegal silencer, for $3,500.
On Dec. 11, the informant and an undercover officer met Shoen met at a parking lot in St. Paul where they bought the assault rifle, which turned out to have been stolen from West St. Paul in 2009, the newspaper reported.
On Sunday, a different confidential informant met Shoen and agreed to travel with him to a marijuana-grow house in northern Minnesota, the complaint says. During that trip, Shoen pointed a handgun at the informant's head and accused him “of being a snitch and working with the police.”
While Shoen was taking a shower at a motel in McGregor, Minn., the informant took Shoen's keys and car and drove back to the Twin Cities, the complaint said. The informant turned the vehicle over to authorities who found an AR-15 assault rifled and body armor inside.
On Tuesday, Shoen returned to the Twin Cities with two other men after being told his car was in a Walmart parking lot in Vadnais Heights, north of St. Paul. The complaint says Shoen went to the store to buy a laser scope for an assault rifle. Shoen told two men in a car with him that “something was going to happen, that it was his 'last day,' and that he 'was not going down without a fight,’” the complaint says.
“Shoen kept repeating, ‘I'm not going to jail! I'm not going to jail!’” and threw a package of methamphetamine out the car window when he saw a police car was following him from the Walmart, the complaint says.
A Minneapolis State Patrol trooper used a “pit maneuver” forcing the suspect's vehicle from the highway and into the snow on Interstate 694 near Valley Creek Road in Woodbury. Shoen, who was wearing a “ballistic-plate vest,” and the two other men, whose names weren’t released, were arrested.
Shoen had a .40-caliber pistol magazine in his jacket pocket, the complaint said. Police also found a Sig Sauer AR-15 rifle with a foldable stock and a loaded 60-round magazine; three loaded 30-round AR-15 magazines; another loaded 60-round magazine, and more than 1,200 rounds for the AR-15. A loaded Smith & Wesson .40-caliber pistol was by the front passenger seat, and an AR-15 optic laser sight with a Walmart receipt was found on a back seat.
