2010 West Memphis police shootings

Around 11:36 a.m. CDT, a white Plymouth Voyager minivan traveling east on Interstate 40 toward Airport Road was pulled over by West Memphis police officer Bill Evans. According to a spokesperson for the Arkansas State Police, Officer Evans was "running drug interdiction"; the vehicle, driven by Jerry Kane, had unusual Ohio license plates. Sergeant Brandon Paudert provided backup for Evans. As a self-proclaimed sovereign citizen, Jerry Kane did not have a driver's license and his van was not properly registered with the state. He was also carrying a brick of marijuana and there were two arrest warrants for him, one in Ohio and one in New Mexico. Both officers were fatally wounded; Paudert, 39, died at the scene, and Evans, 38, died at the hospital. The suspects returned to their van and sped away. Vincent Brown, a FedEx driver from Houston, witnessed the shooting and called 911; neither officer could make an "officer down" call due to their fatal injuries. Approximately 2 hours after the incident, Crittenden County Sheriff Dick Busby and Chief Enforcement Officer W. A. Wren stopped a minivan believed to be the suspects' at a Walmart Supercenter. Busby and Wren were wounded in gunfire exchanged with the suspects and were later hospitalized in critical condition. For his actions, Neal was awarded Law Enforcement Officer of the Year by the National Rifle Association of America (NRA). Michael K. Neal's truck is on permanent display at the National Law Enforcement Museum in Washington, D.C. It was later revealed that Brandon Paudert was shot 14 times, Bill Evans 8 times, Jerry Kane 18 times, and Joe Kane 8 times. ==Perpetrators==

Jerry Kane and Joseph Kane were identified by Arkansas State Police the day after the shootings. Jerry Kane ran a debt elimination business and traveled the country giving paid seminars on methods of "forestalling foreclosures", lecturing that money and home loans are fictitious, and that people can simply sign a quitclaim deed and live in their houses mortgage-free. His concepts were based on the fraudulent schemes advocated by the redemption movement. Kane had said that driver's licences were a "debt contract", and a month before the shooting, he was arrested in New Mexico for driving without a license. On an internet radio show, Kane said he was picked up at a "Nazi checkpoint", spent 47 hours in custody, and planned to sue for $100 per hour of custody. In fact, he was released on $1,500 bond and did not appear for his court date three days before the shooting. In 2007, his wife died of pneumonia. Around 2008, at the height of the mortgage crisis, Kane shifted from being an Internet poster to starting his own debt-elimination seminars business. Joseph Kane traveled the country with his father, whom he assisted on his seminars. He was homeschooled and, by age 9, could recite the Bill of Rights and carried a toy gun everywhere he went. According to Sheriff Kelly, "the child had been taught not to trust law enforcement." Jerry Kane had recently begun a relationship with a Floridian woman whom he had met at one of his seminars and who also adhered to sovereign citizen ideology: shortly before the shooting, she had been involved in a protracted legal battle with her county of residence because she refused to pay a $20 dog-licensing fee. Jerry Kane was unsuccessful as a motivational speaker; his seminars were sparsely attended and he had not gained much notoriety in the sovereign citizen environment. He had decided to cut his tour off early and, when the shooting took place, was en route to Florida where his last seminar was scheduled. After that, he planned to settle in Florida and start a new life with his girlfriend. == Aftermath ==

According to the autopsy, officers and eyewitnesses testimony, Evans was shot 8 times in the chest, back, and arms. Paudert was shot 14 times in the head, arms, legs, both hands and shoulders. ==See also==