Jason Bush is accused of killing a homeless man, a white supremacist, a suspected drug dealer and a 9-year-old Brisenia Flores. This would be so damned funny if it weren’t for the needless death of Brisenia Flores and her father Raul. And sadly, this is typical of the larger movement of border vigilantes who call themselves “Minutemen”!
The Meadview, Ariz., resident even hints he was working undercover investigating Minutemen child killer Shawna Forde, the head of the militia, when Raul Flores Jr. and Flores’ daughter, Brisenia, were murdered on May 30.
“I didn’t do it,” Bush said. “I’m not guilty of what they’ve charged me with, I’ll say that.”
The differences between what authorities say, what court documents state and what Bush says are stark.
Ultimately, jurors in two separate states will decide which is the truth.
According to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, the Floreses were killed by intruders dressed in camouflage and pretending to be law-enforcement officers. Flores’ wife was shot and injured, but managed to shoot Bush in the leg, authorities said.
Bush was arrested and indicted on first-degree murder charges along with Forde, an Everett, Wash., resident, and Albert Gaxiola of Arivaca.
Authorities speculate Forde, the founder of a border-watch group called Minutemen American Defense, targeted the home because she knew Flores was involved in drug trafficking and wanted to steal his money and drugs to fund the Minutemen’s activities. Minutemen American Defense and Shawna Forde have been conclusively linked to other Minutemen organizations including Chris Simcox’s Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, Glenn Spencer’s American Border Patrol, Jim Gilchrist’s Minutemen Project and other more radical organizations including Mountain Minutemen, whose claim to fame is the murder of an illegal migrant in the deserts of California.
Forde’s brother, Merrill Metzger, said Forde had recently begun recruiting members of the Aryan Nations for her mission.
Web site calls him a veteran
Although military officials have no record of Bush having ever served, the Minutemen American Defense Web site describes him as a military veteran who served numerous tours overseas and was in charge of all operations for the organization along the southern border.
He is referred to repeatedly as “Gunny” — military shorthand for a Marine Corps gunnery sergeant.
“I take a very hard line with drugs and illegal immigration. Make no bones about it, I have a zero tolerance for terrorists, and that is what they are,” Bush is quoted as saying on the Web site.
According to Bush, however, he has never been a member of the Minutemen American Defense or the military.
Bush said he is in favor of opening the border and has only received some “unconventional” military training, the details of which he declined to disclose.
Anything about him on the Minutemen American Defense Web site was Forde’s doing, Bush said. “I think she was trying to lend some sort of legitimacy to her so-called movement,” he said.
Bush describes himself as a self-employed engineer whose part-time job is to “compile profiles and dossiers” on various people for employers he declined to identify and for reasons he declined to give.
“I have signed nondisclosure agreements. Other than that, I can’t get deep into it without talking to my attorney,” Bush said.
“It’s part of my defense on why I’m down here in the first place and my motive.”
The self-proclaimed devout Christian said he has done a lot of research on Minutemen organizations and their members, but again declined to say why.
Bush said he “came into contact” with Forde through the Southern Poverty Law Center “as a person of interest.”
The center, which tracks hate groups, has been a “great source of information,” Bush said.
Mark Potok, director of the center’s intelligence project, said the organization became aware of Bush only after his arrest. As for being a source of information for Bush, Potok said, “that is total, utter hogwash. We’ve had no dealings with ‘Gunny’ Bush, and we don’t want to.”
Bush declined to comment on what happened the night of the slayings other than to say he didn’t know the victims and he never confessed — contrary to what the Pima County Sheriff’s Department has said.
He said all he knows about the slayings is what’s he’s read in police reports, which seem to indicate there are suspects who still haven’t been arrested, Bush said.
“I have no independent knowledge of who they are,” Bush said.
Asked if he was at the Flores home that night or if he had an alibi, Bush said, “I can’t talk about anything that night. I’m going to have to leave that to a defense attorney. That’s really touchy stuff.”
As for the gunshot wound to his leg, which authorities said he got during the home invasion, Bush replied, “I can’t really talk about that; that’s part of my defense.”
When asked if he truly believes drug traffickers and illegal immigrants are “terrorists,” Bush initially laughed and then began to choke up.
“No. I believe terrorists are people who invade people’s homes in the middle of the night and shoot families,” Bush said. “I believe terrorists are people that have the ability and the knowledge to stand up and take responsibility for their own actions and choose not to and let someone else sit and rot in prison for their inaction.”
Denies Aryan Nations claim
Bush also denies being a member of the Aryan Nations.
“I’d make a piss-poor white supremacist,” Bush said. “If that were true, half of my family tree would have to have been annihilated. Hitler didn’t care too much for gypsies and Jews, and I have a lot of Native American influence.”
Officials in two Washington state counties, however, say Bush’s racist views led him to kill two men in that state in 1997.
Bush is charged in the July 1997 stabbing death of Hector Lopez-Partida, a homeless man who died in Wenatchee, and the September 1997 death of Jon Bumstead, an 18-year-old white supremacist from East Wenatchee.
Bush was tied to Lopez-Partida’s death after his arrest in the Flores deaths; his DNA was found in the armpit of a shirt found at the murder scene.
According to Douglas County court records obtained by the Star this week, an informant told detectives he, Bush, Bumstead and another friend were camping together when Bush shot Bumstead in the back and the head.
He hadn’t come forward until now because Bush had threatened to kill him and his family, the man told police. He was 17 at the time of the slaying.
The other friend confirmed what the first informant told detectives and said he was so afraid of Bush he moved his family to the Midwest to get away.
Court documents indicate a third informant told detectives Bush admitted killing both men. “Confidential Informant No. 2″ told detectives Bush wore gold laces in his boots, identifying him as an Aryan Nations member who has committed a murder. The man said Bush told him he’d killed Bumstead because “he was a traitor to the race and a Jew.”
Court documents also indicate the FBI confirmed Bush was spotted at an Aryan Nations compound for three days following Lopez-Partida’s death and at a “racial identity seminar” the month following Bumstead’s death.
Bush says he has an alibi for Lopez-Partida’s slaying. He had not been charged in Bumstead’s slaying at the time of the Star’s interview with him.
Death penalty possible
The Pima County Attorney’s Office has until the end of the month to decide if prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty.
It’s a possibility Bush says weighs heavy on his mind.
The Idaho native asked for the interview with the Star, not only to proclaim his innocence but to send a message of love to his family and, hopefully, get help for his county-paid attorney, Chris Kimminau.
Bush knows the case is getting national attention and admits that he hopes to put together an entire defense team that is willing to work for free.
“I have a very defendable position, but even a very defendable position requires more resources than what we have available,” Bush said.
“The prosecuting attorney has limitless resources, thousands of police officers to investigate for them and forensics, labs and technicians. … I have a county-funded attorney and a private investigator. Those are my resources. Facing what I’m facing, it’s kind of scary.
“I’m praying for a miracle. You’ve got to understand, I’m fighting for my life.”
Their next court date is August 18, in Pima County (Az) Superior Court.
Those of us who exposed Minutemen Child Killer Shawna Forde and her group are praying for a miracle also. That an honest jury of 12, a rarity in southern Arizona it seems, can be seated and have the balls to pass judgement on these scum. We also pray that this cowardly bastard is present at the execution of the others to give him pause for thought at what awaits him. We also pray, that the racist cunt Shawna Forde, incarcerated in a facility where 75% of the inmates are latina, might also receive peers justice and save the county the expense of a trial!
SOURCE: Azstarnet
