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GREAT CACAPON, W.Va. — Pennsylvania police arrested a man early Tuesday morning in connection with a triple homicide that took place near Cacapon State Park in West Virginia Monday afternoon.Police made the arrest in Pennsylvania with the help of Morgan County deputies and West Virginia State Police. Reports identified the alleged shooter as Erick Shute, 32, of Great Cacapon, but formerly of Pennsville, NJ.A 911 call dispatched the sheriff’s department to Valley High Timber Farm around 4:45 p.m. Monday. Deputies responded on high alert fearing there was an active shooter at the scene. It turned out the shooter had fled, but deputies discovered three bodies all dead of gunshot wounds. The names of the men killed have not been released.Morgan County Sheriff Vince Shambaugh identified Shute to MetroNews as a “sovereign citizen” and said he had filed a number of complaints against the victims including property disputes. The victims were shot dead while clearing wood and debris from the roadway adjacent to Shute’s property. Shambaugh said Shute ambushed the men with a rifle from a wooded area nearby.One victim was able to flee the scene and was not injured.Shambaugh said the property is a weekend home for Shute who also owns property in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He posted to social media the shooting was in self defense. Shambaugh says he believes Shute was building a compound on the property near Great Cacapon.Shute made the following post to his Facebook page:Quote“This was self defense. I talked to a cop and he even agreed this was an open and shut case of self defense and they probably won’t even pursue charges. I am just waiting to talk to the prosecutor. I have nothing to hide. Media can contact me on my cell. I am open to talk. These guys stole over $20,000 pf oir (sic) stuff and sold it for drugs and threatened me to my face before. They even unacrewed (sic) my brakeline while I was asleep. Everyone not on drugs on the mountain hates them. These are known thieves and drug addicts.”The incident touched off an eight-hour manhunt in the region before Shute was located in Pennsylvania at just after midnight Tuesday morning.Shute is known to New Jersey authorities. He was in the middle of a controversy in 2009 in Salem County, NJ, when he hung a flag upside down as a “signal of distress” for America. Shute claimed the government was corrupt. In 2011, he was indicted by a New Jersey grand jury on charges of attacking a police officer and resisting arrest. ...
“This was self defense. I talked to a cop and he even agreed this was an open and shut case of self defense and they probably won’t even pursue charges. I am just waiting to talk to the prosecutor. I have nothing to hide. Media can contact me on my cell. I am open to talk. These guys stole over $20,000 pf oir (sic) stuff and sold it for drugs and threatened me to my face before. They even unacrewed (sic) my brakeline while I was asleep. Everyone not on drugs on the mountain hates them. These are known thieves and drug addicts.”
... The victims are identified as Travis Bartley, 24, his father William Bartley, 53, both of Hedgesville, and Jack Douglas of Great Cacapon. Shambaugh identified Douglas as the father of Travis Bartley’s wife/girlfriend with whom he has a young child.Another would-be victim fled the scene and was not injured, though Shambaugh did not release the fourth person’s name, saying it was part of the ongoing investigation.“They were all staying up there with Jack who lives just down the road from where this happened. They all worked together,” said Shambugh. “I saw all three of them together earlier in the day at a gas station in Berkeley Springs. It’s a small community.”The sheriff said the property is a weekend home for Shute, who also owns property in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Shute posted to social media the shooting was in self-defense. Shambaugh said he believes Shute was building a compound on the property near Great Cacapon.“These folks, they don’t want to pay taxes. They don’t want to recognize local government. They want to build these compounds back in these places away from everybody,” said the sheriff. “They’re preparing for the end times and to be the survivors. He’s tried to recruit some locals to help him build his compound with his little group of sovereigns. He’d talked to the locals about his compound with a cache of weapons and ammunition stored there. That’s where they are all going to go in the end times.” ...
...Meanwhile, the small, tight knit county remains in shock.“When we first got the news it pretty much put everybody on lock-down which doesn’t happen very often around here,” said Morgan County Commission President Brad Close. “It was a tough evening, there were a lot of people around here living in fear.”Morgan County, population 18,000, rarely has incidents like Monday’s triple homicide. Close said that’s the way they like it which such an event is the exception and not the norm.“This county is a wonderful place, I was born and raised here and I’m raising my family here,” he said. “If I felt any different about it I certainly wouldn’t be here.”Shute is self proclaimed “sovereign citizen” a movement in which members refuse to acknowledge the authority of any local, state, or national government. Apparently Morgan County is the home of several members of the movement according to Close.“We do have quite a few of those citizens who don’t recognize law enforcement or the local government for what it is, or the state or federal for that matter,” he said. “It’s unfortunate, but at the same time we are very careful to understand who and what they are and to understand public safety is a top priority.”Close said now that Shute’s case has become the main stream of conversation, many in the county are trying to learn more about the sovereign citizen movement and what they are doing and claiming. Close said for the most part, they are reclusive and very private.“Until they break the law, they are free to do as they so choose,” said Close. “In essence they are not directly insubordinate if you will. They just want to live on their own, on their own property to fence in their property and wait for the end of times in most cases.” ...
