Wakefield, massachusetts. It started overnight when police found a group of men heavily armed refueling their vehicles on the side of the highway. They ran Into The Woods after refusing to comply with police. Earlier Today State Police detailing the weapons found among this group, which identifies itself as rise of the moors, which claims to be immune from state laws. The number of firearms have been seized, i cannot share with you the exact number. The two vehicles that were at the scene are being towed from the scene. They will be processed pursuant to a courtauthorized Search Warrant and we will know the number of firearms that have been seized. I can tell you both Land Guns and handguns are in plain view and we anticipate those will be seized. Nbcs Kathy Park is watching developments in massachusetts and joins us live. How did all of this unfold and how are police able to come to a peaceful conclusion . Reporter well, lindsey, it certainly was an unusual situation that played out e
The trooper called in for backup. Initially two men were arrested and it took about nine hours for the rest of the group to be arrested. You mentioned earlier 11 people are now in custody, but this certainly was a scary moment for that entire community. They were placed into a lockdown. They were asked to shelter in place. They received reverse 911 calls asking them to stay inside, lock their doors because of the ongoing situation. Yeah, it sounds like it was a pretty wild night in wakefield, mass. Kathy, thank you so much. All right. Lets bring in ben collins. He covers disinformation, extremism and the internet for nbc news. Ben, great to see you, my friend. You know all about this kind of stuff. You are the right man to ask. What do you know about this group, rise of the moors . What can you tell us . Yeah, sure. Theyre an offshoot of the moorish sovereign Citizen Movement. The last time they were in the news was back do you remember when qanon said in march there would be a thing w
Not demands but requests they just be allowed to leave the area, transit the area without any accountability and at the end of the day we couldn t accommodate that. nbc s kathy park is watching developments. she joins us live. what can you tell us? how did this standoff begin and how were police able to bring it to a peaceful end? reporter: allison it was a wild incident that took place while both you and i were probably sleeping, around 1:30 in the morning is when state troopers came across two vehicles that were in the breakdown lane on i-95 in wakefield, massachusetts. there were several men outside of the vehicle. they were wearing tactical gear and they were heavily armed. they were asked to show their ids and permits for those firearms but they didn t comply. that s when things quickly escalated. the men took off into the woods.