Thirty-one people affiliated with the white nationalist group Patriot Front were arrested near an annual LGBTQ+ event Saturday in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, police said.
The suspects were booked on suspicion of conspiracy to riot, Coeur d'Alene Police Chief Lee White said at an afternoon news conference. Among those in custody late Saturday was a man with the same name as Patriot Front's Dallas-based founder, Thomas Ryan Rousseau.
White said police were made aware in recent days that a number of groups planned to disrupt Pride in the Park, an annual event highlighting civil rights struggles for the LGBTQ+ communities.
Staffing was increased and awareness was heightened by the time dispatchers fielded a report of 20 people in a U-Haul vehicle Saturday afternoon, he said.
The suspects wore masks, had shields, and "looked like a little army," the chief said, quoting the caller who reported the suspicious activity.
Ten minutes after that 1:38 p.m. U-Haul report, police stopped the vehicle and a total of 31 people in "similar attire" were arrested, White said.
Police in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, detain people pulled Saturday, June. 11, 2022, from a U-Haul truck near the city's Pride celebration.Georji Brown
Suspects resided in multiple states, including Texas, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, South Dakota, Illinois, Arkansas, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon and Virginia, he said.
"They came to riot," White said.
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