TRINIDAD, Texas – After almost 15 years, what is believed to be the longest armed standoff in American history quietly came to a peaceful close earlier this week.
John Joe Gray was arrested in 1999 for assaulting a state trooper during a traffic stop. Gray said it was his God-given right to carry the pistol he had that day, without a concealed handgun license. When the trooper tried to arrest him, Gray got into a scuffle with the officer and bit him.
Gray was eventually charged with assaulting a public servant, but he refused to return to court, and instead, armed himself at home.
“If they come out after us, bring extra body bags. Those who live by the sword will die by the sword,” Gray told ABC News in a 2000 interview.
Since the felony charge in 1999, Gray has never left his 47-acres along the banks of the Trinity River between Tool and Trinidad, Texas.
Instead, Gray, his children, grandchildren, and friends patrol their property with pistols and rifles and refuse to let strangers inside.
National Geographic said it took a crew two years to earn the family’s trust recently.
“We’ve never shot no one yet,” Gray told National Geographic. “But they know, if they come on us, they’ll be surprised what’s going to happen to them.”
The felony charge of assaulting a peace officer was actually dismissed in December 2014, when the district attorney left office. But for some reason, no one notified the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office or even the Gray family, until now.
“Being a peace officer, you do have some emotions — that you would like to see him brought before court and the case tried — but on the other hand, was it worth all that it might have cost to do that?” Henderson County Sheriff Ray Nutt said about the incident.
And while it may be easy to draw comparisons between the standoff currently underway in Oregon and what happened in this rural Texas county, the situations are completely different, according to Nutt.
“Those folks have occupied a public building. Joe Gray is on 47-acres that he owns out there,” the sheriff explained.
The Grays painted their paranoia on signs posted along their fence. “Vaccinations equal annihilation” reads one of the anti-government messages.
Sheriff Nutt said he’s glad the district attorney decided to drop charges.
“Yeah. It takes pressure off people. And it may take pressure off them,” the sheriff said. “There’s always been the potential for something bad happening.”
Nutt said he didn’t go get Gray because deputies could have died.
“It wasn’t worth it,” the sheriff said. “Joe Gray has been in prison out there himself, in my opinion, for 14 years.”
It was justice served, the sheriff suggested, in a felony case that never went to court. And for the first time this century, Joe Gray is free to leave his home.
I guess being trapped on your own 47 acres is a lot better than going to prison, but it was a 15-year sentence anyway. I guess it’s kind of like the country-club prisons that rich people go to.
Good timing with that photo. Just yesterday I was explaining to someone what a “cattle guard” is and how it worked, and this guy has one across his driveway. No one on the east side of the country has ever seen one of them.
(for fellow easterners, you can leave that gate wide open, and the cows won’t walk over that grating).
The Grays painted their paranoia on signs posted along their fence. “Vaccinations equal annihilation” reads one of the anti-government messages. ………paranoia? haha ……….“It wasn’t worth it,” the sheriff said. “Joe Gray has been in prison out there himself, in my opinion, for 14 years.” got that right..the man was defending himself
Sheriff Nutt decided it wasn’t too crazy to just drop the matter! 😆
That’s Mr. Nutt. And that’s what you’ll call him. Like the dude.. in that movie….. Yet he couldn’t bust one. 🙂
Fifteen years on my own property… Some 47 acres… Never being bothered by the damn government because they are too scared to try anything… Just LEFT ALONE… Sounds like HEAVEN to me!
With all the BULLSHIT pulled by the Masonic Ring knockers and the Kosher filth do any of you think that those DICKS are just going to let it slide??? BS. It is in the computer waiting. That is how the snakes work. What is the first rule about gubermint TURDS…they lie. Buy more ammo. Liberty1775
Agreed… SOP.
“Yeah. It takes pressure off people. And it may take pressure off them,” the sheriff said. “There’s always been the potential for something bad happening.”
Think he has even the slightest clue?
Change ‘potential’ to inevitable.
Tick, tock…
wouldn’t put it past the boobs to pick him up at a traffic stop or something if he does leave his property to go anywhere..and they can always just say he resisted arrest and use the past “assault on police officer” to justify….
i don’t trust the bastards when they said he is free to leave..
I seen a documentary about these people last year.
They are high centered with kids of many ages and little resource input besides what they can grow and kill. It was kind of sad. BUT a whole family sticking by one of there own is pretty unusual these days.