Armed citizen guards kicked off recruiters’ doorsteps
Armed citizens who started guarding the entrances of military recruiting centers in Las Vegas almost two weeks ago were not there Friday.
They said they were forced to leave earlier this week by Metro and a woman who said she represented the Department of Defense, although she declined to give them her name or show proof of identity.
The men, two of whom are veterans, had taken action to make sure that what happened in Chattanooga, Tenn., where five servicemen were shot to death on July 16, would not happen in Las Vegas.
Now they’re demanding answers from police and federal officials.
Ron O’Brien, 59, had stood guard at the Marines recruiting center on 4632 S. Parkway Blvd. since July 20. A retired firefighter, O’Brien said he wanted to protect unarmed recruiters “in case of another attack.”
Recruiters at the center and members of the community showed support until this week, he said.
As recently as Tuesday, Metro officers and military recruiters alike would stop by to “shake hands and slap five,” O’Brien said.
But on Wednesday, the “mystery woman” took a picture of the center from the outside, entered the facility and then summoned police, he said.
“All of a sudden, we weren’t allowed to be there,” he said. “Police were very tight-lipped about who this lady was.”
Soon after the woman walked inside the recruiting center, a video from O’Brien shows at least four Metro officers demanding that he and another “volunteer” leave the property.
“Just like that, they were telling us to leave,” he said.
Other recruiting center citizen guards shared a similar experience.
Don Leuker, 33, is an Army veteran who sat outside the recruiting center at 7022 W. Lake Mead Blvd. for “several days,” starting last week. He described the same woman telling him to leave on Tuesday, before taking a picture from the outside of the facility.
“No documentation, ID or anything, she just came and told me I was trespassing,” Leuker said.
A third man, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the woman told him to leave from outside the Army Recruiting Center of 455 W. Craig in North Las Vegas. Though police weren’t at the scene, he said he complied, out of fear.
“I’m not showing you any identity, but just trust me, you have to leave,” he said the woman told him.
Department of Defense spokesman Tom Crosson said Friday that while the Department of Defense opposes armed citizens standing outside of the recruiting centers, they have no legal authority to force citizens to leave. Crosson said he wasn’t aware of such a practice happening anywhere in Las Vegas or across the country.
“We can’t force people to leave unless the recruiting center is on federal property,” he said. “We don’t have an initiative in place saying ‘you must leave.'”
A Metro spokesman acknowledged that police responded to a call on Wednesday at 4632 S. Rainbow Blvd., and told the two armed men to leave.
“I don’t know who this woman is, but representatives asked these people to leave,” spokesman officer Jesse Roybal said, declining to identify the representatives. “They were asked, we were called, and that’s why we showed up.”
“We support people’s right to bear arms, as long as they’re legally within their right to do so,” Roybal added.
Army spokesman Jeff Ross said Friday he was aware of an initiative in place to remove armed citizens from outside recruiting centers, though he couldn’t confirm who was behind it.
Ross, who represents Army recruiting centers in the western United States, said similar measures to remove armed citizens from the centers were also in place in Idaho, Montana and Salt Lake City.
“We’re aware of law enforcement’s presence and we respect what they’re trying to do,” he said.
While the nationwide movement continues in other parts of the country, the Las Vegas volunteers want an explanation.
“We just want to know, by what authority are you telling us that we can’t be here?” O’Brien said.
“We were applauded last week, and now they say we’re violating the law,” Leuker said. “But nobody will tell us why.”
Contact Chris Kudialis at ckudialis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283. Follow @kudialisrj on Twitter.
