“I’ve got six shots and the high ground. I hope they don’t find me, but if they do it’s going to be a hell of a show.”
An armed Libertarian state Senate candidate in North Carolina live-tweeted an hours-long manhunt through the woods, taunted the cops chasing him with guns drawn, and gave his followers a blow-by-blow account of just how close they were to catching him.
Cary police arrested Jonathan D. Miller, the Libertarian nominee for the state’s 16th Senate District, Monday afternoon after a standoff. It started as a welfare check after Miller posted a suicidal threat, but police said it quickly escalated when he grabbed a revolver and took off.
Miller posted play-by-play updates about the foot pursuit to his followers on X.
“The whole police department is chasing me with guns drawn. This should be fun,” he wrote. “I’ve got six shots and the high ground. I hope they don’t find me, but if they do it’s going to be a hell of a show.”
The posts came after Miller wrote Sunday evening that he intended to kill himself, saying he could no longer endure his suffering. Police began monitoring the messages and attempted to check on his welfare Monday morning.
Cary police said officers went to Miller’s home on Glen Echo Lane around 8:26 a.m. When an officer encountered him outside, Miller had a firearm, and the officer ordered him not to touch it. Instead, he ran into nearby woods, according to Police Chief Terry Sult.
Miller described the encounter himself during calls to local television station WRAL, which he contacted repeatedly while the standoff continued.
He told the station that he had spent the previous night crying and feeling depressed but had decided not to kill himself. After getting up to make coffee and stepping outside for a cigarette, he said, he encountered the officer.
“I told him I was going to refuse that order, and I backed away slowly until I was far enough away from him to turn and run, and then I turned and ran into the woods,” Miller told WRAL.
Miller continued posting during the pursuit, at one point describing a phone conversation with a negotiator that he believed had allowed police to surround him.
“F*ck they almost got me,” he wrote. “While I was distracted talking with him on the phone they were moving in around me. Luckily I spotted one of them and took off.”
Around 2 p.m., he posted: “I f*cked up and talked to the negotiator on the phone long enough for them to box me in. They have dogs so I’m probably done for.”
Police took Miller into custody shortly after 3 p.m. Police reported no injuries.
“He was in a dark place,” Sult said during a news conference. “Felt like he was on his last leg.”
Chase Oliver, the Libertarian Party’s 2024 presidential nominee, urged Miller to surrender during the pursuit.
“Stop what you are doing and announce where you are and drop the gun,” Oliver wrote. “Please stop. Folks want you to live.”
Sult said the department, with WRAL’s permission, was able to monitor Miller’s calls to the station and use information from them to help resolve the standoff. The chief thanked the station for its cooperation.
Miller, who describes himself as a carpenter and former small-business owner, is running against Democrat state Sen. Gale Adcock and Republican nominee Philip Hensley. The pursuit occurred eight days before Election Day.
If you or anyone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988 or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources.
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