Wakefield, USA: Standing up one hour with a group of heavy armed men who partly closed the interstate 95 ended on Saturday with 11 suspects in detention, said Massachusetts state police said.
The police initially reported nine suspects were detained, but two were detained in their vehicle on Saturday morning.
Two suspects were hospitalized, but the police said for the existing conditions that had nothing to do with the deadlock.
Police Mass Police Colonel Christopher Mason said the suspects surrendered after the police tactical team used armored vehicles to tighten the perimeter around them.
The deadlock closed some I-95 for most of the morning, causing major traffic problems during the fourth holiday weekend of July.
Authorities say the interstate is now reopened and the order of shelter for the Wakefield and read is appointed.
In Massachusetts, the Interstate 95 runs from the Rhode Island line, around Boston to the new Hampshire line.
Wakefield is in the east where the interstate 95 and 93 met north of Boston.
The deadlock began around 2am when the police watched two cars pulled over I-95 with a danger lamp after they ran out of fuel, the authorities said on Saturday.
At least some suspects dressed in military-style with weapons and a long gun, Mason said.
He added that they headed to Maine from Rhode Island for “training.” “You can imagine 11 gunmen standing with a long weapon attached to the highway between states at 2 am certainly raising concerns and not consistent with the firearm law that we have in Massachusetts,” Mason said.
He said he understood the suspects, who did not have a firearm license, had a different perspective on the law.
“I appreciate that perspective,” he said, “I did not agree with the perspective at the end of the day, but I realized that it was there.” The people refused to put their weapons or obey the command of the authorities, claiming to come from the group “who did not recognize our law” before leaving for wooded areas, police said.
Police and prosecutors work to determine what costs will be faced by group members.
The suspects are expected to appear in court in Woburn on Tuesday, said Middlesex District Prosecutor Marian Ryan.
Mason said “the leader of confessing himself” from the group wants it to be known that they are not anti-government.
“I think the investigation that follows this interaction will give us more insight into what their motivation is, what their ideology is,” Mason said.
In a video posted to social media on Saturday morning, a man who did not give his name, but said he came from a group called the Awakening Moor, broadcast from the interstate 95 at Wakefield near Exit 57.
“We are not anti-government..
We are not Anti-police, we are not a sovereign citizen, we are not a black identity extremist, “said the man who seemed to wear military-style equipment.
“As determined several times to the police that we live by the United States peaceful travel law.” The website for the group said they were “Moor America dedicated to educating new Moors and influencing our elders.” Mason said he had no knowledge of the group, but it was unusual for the state police to meet people who had “sovereign citizens ideologies,” even though he did not know whether the people involved in the wakefield deadlock were part of it.