North Carolina Senate candidate arrested after armed standoff with police
A Libertarian candidate for the North Carolina state Senate was arrested after an hourslong armed standoff with police in Cary, according to police and local media. No shots were fired.
Jonathan D. Miller was taken into custody at about 3 p.m. on Monday. The incident unfolded in the 300 block of Glen Echo Lane and ended in woods behind his apartment, according to Cary police.
Cary Police Chief Terry Sult said officers received calls from people concerned about social media posts in which the suspect threatened to harm himself. Police tried unsuccessfully to contact him earlier in the morning before an officer encountered him during another attempt to check on his welfare.
“At that point, he had a firearm. He was ordered not to touch it. He got it and then he took off running,” Sult told reporters.
The suspect gave his account during several calls to WRAL while hiding in the woods. He said an officer approached him while he was outside smoking, saw a holstered revolver on his hip and drew his own weapon.
“I told him I was going to refuse that order, and I backed away slowly until I was far enough away from him to turn and run, and then I turned and ran into the woods,” he told WRAL.
The suspect continued posting on X during the incident, describing efforts to evade police and conversations with a negotiator.
“I’ve got six shots and the high ground. I hope they don’t find me, but if they do it’s going to be a hell of a show,” he wrote in one post. In another, he said police had nearly caught him while he was distracted by a negotiator’s phone call.
Sult said police monitored the posts as negotiators, the Wake Regional SWAT team and tactical medics worked at the scene. Glen Echo Lane and Audubon Parc Drive were closed, and nearby Resurrection Lutheran School was under a code yellow lockdown for part of the day, WRAL reported.
The suspect told WRAL he was hiding because he did not want to be taken into custody and confined to a hospital. He said he hoped police would give up so he could leave Cary.
Sult said the suspect still had a weapon when he was arrested, though the chief could not identify its type.
WRAL reported that the suspect was charged with communicating threats, resisting officers and going armed to the terror of the people, and is being held at the Wake County Detention Center. Chief Sult said police have also obtained warrants for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
The chief thanked WRAL for taking the calls, saying police monitored the conversations with the station’s permission and provided guidance to the person speaking with the suspect.
