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<div class="timestamp">May 3, 2012</div>
<h1>Vigilante Leader Was Among Five Shot Dead in Arizona</h1>
<span><h6 class="byline">By FERNANDA SANTOS</h6></span>
<div id="articleBody">
<p>
GILBERT, Ariz. — The police confirmed Thursday that a former Marine and
aspiring politician who led a vigilante border militia group was among
five people shot to death on Wednesday in what apparently was a
murder-suicide at a home in this suburban Phoenix town. </p>
<p>
The leader, Jason Todd Ready, who was called J. T., was known as a
gun-carrying, camouflage-clad extremist who preached violence to stop
immigrants and drug smugglers from crossing the Arizona desert into the
United States from Mexico. </p>
<p>
“I firmly believe in having a minefield across the border,” he once said. </p>
<p>
The police were awaiting the results of an autopsy to identify the
gunman, but at a news conference on Thursday, Sgt. Bill Balafas, a
Gilbert police spokesman, said signs pointed to Mr. Ready. “The gunshot
wound locations, just the scene itself, the condition of the victims,
how they were found at the scene — they all lead to him,” Sergeant
Balafas said. </p>
<p>
The shooting occurred after 1 p.m. on a placid dead-end street here. </p>
<p>
A neighbor four doors away heard gunshots and called 911. Sergeant
Balafas said another call came from the shooting’s sole survivor, a
teenage girl who told the police she had heard an argument, and then
gunfire. She said she emerged from a back room to find the bodies.
</p>
<p>
The bodies of Mr. Ready, 39, and another man, Jim Franklin Hiott, 24,
were found just outside the home’s front door. The bodies of Mr. Ready’s
girlfriend, Lisa Lynn Mederos, 47; her daughter, Amber Mederos, 23; and
her 15-month-old granddaughter, Lily Lynn Mederos, were inside. </p>
<p>
Inside the house, the police recovered two handguns, a shotgun and six
projectile grenades, which Tom Mangan, a spokesman for the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Phoenix, said are strictly
for military use. Officers also found two 55-gallon drums containing an
unknown chemical. Sergeant Balafas said federal agents were
investigating the origin of the weapons and the nature of the chemical,
as well as why they were there. </p>
<p>
The police gave no motive for the shooting, but said there was no
indication that it had been planned or was connected to Mr. Ready’s
beliefs or his work along the border. “At this time,” Sergeant Balafas
said at the news conference, “it appears to be a purely domestic
situation.” </p>
<p>
Mr. Ready moved into the house to live with Ms. Mederos in the last
year, according to neighbors, who on Thursday recalled him as pleasant
and peculiar, always wearing camouflage clothing and a military vest.
</p>
<p>
To Harry Hughes, regional director of the National Socialist Movement,
the largest neo-Nazi group in the United States, Mr. Ready was “a
patriot” — “a sincere and compassionate man,” he said in a telephone
interview. Mr. Ready had been a member of the movement, Mr. Hughes said,
but resigned two years ago to found the <a href="http://usborderguard.com/US_Border_Guard.html">U.S. Border Guard</a>, an armed group that conducted expeditions in the Arizona desert to search for migrants and drug smugglers. </p>
<p>
Mr. Hughes said he had joined one of those expeditions. “We’d come
across people who have been out in the desert for eight or nine days,
we’d give them water and then we’d notify the Border Patrol,” Mr. Hughes
said. </p>
<p>
Mr. Ready, though, described the group in a 2010 interview as “the <a title="Web site." href="http://www.minutemanproject.com">Minuteman Project</a> on steroids,” made up of “people with assault weapons” willing to use “lawful, deadly force when appropriate.” </p>
<p>
His was one of a number of private border-enforcement groups to sprout
in recent years, unique because of its ties to the white supremacist
movement. Kat Rodriguez, a director at the <a title="Web site." href="http://www.derechoshumanosaz.net/">Coalición de Derechos Humanos</a>
in Tucson, which opposes the militarization of the border, said that
the two created a dangerous intersection, with one group serving as
fertile recruiting ground for the other. </p>
<p>
Mr. Ready pleaded guilty to assault after he was arrested in 1992 for
helping another man destroy a car mirror with a baseball bat. In the
Marines, he faced two courts-martial, one for an unauthorized absence
and another for assault and other charges, which prompted his discharge,
according to <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/profiles/jt-ready">a biography compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center</a>, which tracks hate groups in the United States. </p>
<p>
“J. T. Ready has a long history of thuggish and violent behavior,” Mark
Potok, a senior fellow at the center, said in an interview. “He really
typified the ugly racism and violent attitude of a lot of people that we
see in the nativist movement.” </p>
<p>
In recent years, Mr. Ready tried his hand at politics; in 2007, he was photographed at a rally against illegal <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/i/immigration_and_refugees/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about immigration." class="meta-classifier">immigration</a>
with Russell Pearce, a former State Senate president and the architect
of Arizona’s contested immigration law, known as S.B. 1070. </p>
<p>
“At some point,” Mr. Pearce said in a statement, “darkness took his life
over, his heart changed and he began to associate with the more
despicable groups in society.” </p>
<p>
Mr. Ready ran for office without success as a Republican contender for a
State House seat in 2004 and for a City Council seat in the neighboring
city of Mesa. This year, he began an effort to run as a Democrat for
Pinal County sheriff. </p>
<div class="articleCorrection">
</div>
</div>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 12:47 AM, Saundra Lund <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:v2020@ssl1.fastmail.fm" target="_blank">v2020@ssl1.fastmail.fm</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Riigght . . . these "Constitutional Sheriff" candidates & militia members<br>
are just ordinary folk. Not! And, do be sure to check out this whacko's<br>
Facebook for a more . . . complete picture of this miscreant:<br>
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/JT-Ready-for-Sheriff/327457743953277" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/pages/JT-Ready-for-Sheriff/327457743953277</a><br>
<br>
Note, too, that we have a local "Constitutional Sheriff" candidate running<br>
in Latah County -- attached see what we found on our doorstep several days<br>
ago.<br>
<br>
SL<br>
_____<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/local/gilbert/article_438ac440-94a1-11e1-bd%0Af9-0019bb2963f4.html" target="_blank">http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/local/gilbert/article_438ac440-94a1-11e1-bd<br>
f9-0019bb2963f4.html</a><br>
<br>
Police ID victims, believe J.T. Ready to be shooter in Gilbert incident<br>
<br>
Posted: Wednesday, May 2, 2012 2:53 pm | Updated: 5:01 pm, Thu May 3, 2012.<br>
<br>
Tribune<br>
<br>
Prominent East Valley political figure J.T. Ready is the man police believe<br>
shot and killed four people Wednesday in a Gilbert home before taking his<br>
own life.<br>
<br>
Gilbert police believe Jason Todd Ready, 39, was the gunman in the incident<br>
that occurred shortly after 1 p.m. at a home at 530 W. Tumbleweed, near the<br>
intersection of Warner and Cooper Roads.<br>
<br>
Ready is a former Marine known for his neo-Nazi ties, as well as for his<br>
efforts in organizing desert militia groups to find illegal immigrants and<br>
drug smugglers. He most recently had announced intentions to run for the<br>
office of Pinal County Sheriff, and previously had run for a Mesa City<br>
Council seat in 2006<br>
<br>
In addition to Ready, Gilbert police have also confirmed that Lisa Lynn<br>
Mederos, 46, her daughter, Amber Nieve Mederos, 23, and her granddaughter,<br>
15-month-old Lily Lynn Mederos were among those killed in the shooting. Also<br>
killed was Jim Franklin Hiott, 24, Amber Mederos' fiance.<br>
<br>
Police, who arrived in the neighborhood to see Ready's black Chevy Impala<br>
parked with its nose pointed at the front of the house, still are putting<br>
together the pieces of how the day unraveled that shocked what residents<br>
described as a "tranquil" neighborhood, made national news and stirred a<br>
range of emotions from Ready's friends, adversaries and neighbors.<br>
<br>
Balafas has said that the evidence points to the shooting being related to<br>
domestic violence. Officers have recovered two handguns and a shotgun.<br>
<br>
Sandi Wilder, a neighbor of the home where the shooting occurred at 530 W.<br>
Tumbleweed, said a woman who lived at that residence was the girlfriend of<br>
J.T. Ready.<br>
<br>
Wilder's husband, Chip, president of the Lago Estancia HOA, told the Tribune<br>
that over the past few years, he had often seen Ready and a few other men<br>
dressed in full camouflage gear come to the home. He said they always looked<br>
as if they had been in the desert or were part of a survivalist group.<br>
<br>
"I'm a little shaken up with what's happened in our neighborhood," Chip<br>
Wilder said Wednesday afternoon. "It's just a terrible tragedy."<br>
<br>
"On arrival, officers found several victims within the household," said<br>
Balafas.<br>
<br>
Balafas said police believed only one suspect was involved in the shooting,<br>
and was one of the five dead.<br>
<br>
"We do not believe there are any suspects at large," he said.<br>
<br>
Police were also interviewing someone Wednesday believed to be a witness,<br>
Balafas added.<br>
<br>
Lily Mederos was transported to the hospital shortly after police responded<br>
to the home, but was pronounced dead en route. The bodies of the four adults<br>
involved in the incident remained in the home into Wednesday evening as<br>
police waited for the go-ahead to continue investigating.<br>
<br>
Assisted by the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Mesa Police<br>
Department's bomb squad and the Department of Defense, police discovered two<br>
handguns and a shotgun inside the residence and two 55-gallon drums<br>
containing an unknown liquid in the backyard that delayed investigators of<br>
going into the home until it was examined as a precautionary measure.<br>
<br>
The FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force were at the scene because of the<br>
amount of military-grade munitions found in the house, and chemicals found<br>
in 55-gallon drums in the backyard of the home, Balafas said.<br>
<br>
On Thursday, the FBI was continuing to assist Gilbert police in the<br>
investigation.<br>
<br>
Authorities close to the case said that Ready's activities had caused him to<br>
be a "person of interest" and on their radar for quite some time and by<br>
closely watching him, they said it wasn't known at this time where it could<br>
lead in the way of his possible involvement with other domestic terrorism<br>
groups.<br>
<br>
Investigators obtained a search warrant for the residence and located<br>
hazardous chemicals and military grade munitions. The Gilbert Fire<br>
Department Hazardous Materials Team and the Department of Defense assisted<br>
in removing the items.<br>
<br>
Police had cordoned off a large area of the neighborhood surrounding the<br>
home in northwest Gilbert.<br>
<br>
Two Gilbert schools were locked down Wednesday, according to a message on<br>
the Gilbert Unified School District website.<br>
<br>
At the request of the police department, Gilbert Elementary School, 175 W.<br>
Elliot Road, and Mesquite Junior High School, 130 W. Mesquite, were placed<br>
in a modified lockdown and classes continued inside the schools. People were<br>
unable to enter or leave the building during the lockdown.<br>
<br>
Shortly before 2 p.m., Gilbert Police recommended the schools resume regular<br>
activities, an update on the website said. Students at both schools were<br>
never in any immediate danger.<br>
<br>
A representative from the district was unavailable for comment.<br>
<br>
In a statement issued by Gilbert Mayor John Lewis said, "Our community is<br>
deeply saddened by the tragic loss of life that came as a result of<br>
yesterday's events here in Gilbert. I have the utmost confidence in our<br>
police department's capabilities to handle this ongoing investigation. I<br>
have been so pleased with the cooperation from all local and federal<br>
agencies involved with this matter. We send our heartfelt condolences and<br>
support to the family and friends of those involved and I urge you all to<br>
join together to support our Town during this difficult time."<br>
<br>
Tim Hacker, Stacie Spring, Mike Sakal and the Associated Press contributed<br>
to this report.<br>
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