Minutemen Accused of Murdering Latino Family

Shawna Forde, 41, Jason Eugene Bush, 34, and Albert Robert Gaxiola, 42, have been accused by police for a home invasion attack on May 30th in the border town of Arivaca, AZ which left Raul Junior Flores, 29, and his 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia, shot dead.

Forde has been known to harbor anti-immigrant feelings—even claiming at one point last year that she was being targeted by Mexican Drug Cartels—and was a longstanding member of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. Forde was ousted by the Minutemen two years ago for "conduct unbecoming of a member" and went on to form her own anti-immigration group: Minutemen American Defense. "We will expose and report what we know and find, we will recruit the
serious and train the revolutionist, time for words have passed the
time for bravery and conviction are now," Forde stated as the mission of MAD.

Police say the attack on Flores's home was part of a plan to steal money and drugs in order to fuel Forde's new operation. Pima County Sheriff's spokeswoman Dawn Barkman confirmed, "Shawna was actually the ringleader." Forde's mother confirmed that her daughter had talked of going down to Arizona and staging home invasions to "start taking things away from the Mexican mafia."

Pima County Sheriff's Department explained that the trio planned to steal what they could and kill any witnesses. The plan went awry after they entered the Flores household and killed Raul and his daughter, apparently Flores's wife was able to find a firearm in the house and began to return fire, injuring Bush, who was then arrested a few days later at a nearby hospital. All three have been charged with two counts of first-degree murder.