Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is alleging that a shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada that left two police officers and another victim dead was “absolutely staged” by the federal government.
On June 8, a married couple identified in news reports as Jerad and Amanda Miller ambushed and killed two police officers at a restaurant and killed a third person before taking their own lives in a "suicide pact" at a nearby Walmart. Witnesses say they heard the shooters state “this is the start of a revolution,” after the officers were shot. The slain officers were allegedly draped in Gadsden flags by the shooters, a symbol commonly associated with the Tea Party. Law enforcement officials believe the couple held extreme anti-government views and Jerad Miller reportedly claimed to have participated in the standoff between the Bureau of Land Management and lawless Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy.
On the June 9 edition of The Alex Jones Show, Jones claimed “the country is being purposefully imploded right now,” before calling the shootings “absolutely staged.” Jones continued stating, “There is so much proof of this being staged yesterday, when I first read about it, and this morning, that my mind exploded with hundreds of data points, and quite frankly it's conclusive.” He then claimed that the shooting bore out some of the “hundreds of predictions” that he had made “since the Bundy ranch situation,” including a scenario where a shooting is blamed on the Tea Party. Towards the end of the segment, Jones named Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) and referenced actions by the Obama administration in purporting to identify the actual parties responsible for the Las Vegas police ambush. He concluded, “I kept telling, they're getting ready to false flag, and it happens right in Harry Reid's district, right in his state, right in his city, with his police department”:
Jones, a founding member of the 9-11 conspiracy theories movement, often claims catastrophes -- such as high-profile public incidents of violence or even natural disasters -- are false flag operations conducted by the government or shadowy globalist figures. Earlier this year, Jones joined other right-wing media in championing the cause of Bundy, who refused the pay the federal government decades of past-due grazing fees. One Bundy-related conspiracy theory advanced by Jones -- that the dispute was actually part of a “land grab” involving a Chinese solar company -- made its way on Fox News. (Jones also gave Bundy a platform to falsely claim that he was misquoted after Bundy's racist comments about “the Negro” came to light.)
Jones' work is also a fixture on popular conservative website Drudge Report, whose operator Matt Drudge declared 2013 “the year of Alex Jones.” During a two-year period started in April 2011, Drudge linked to Jones 244 times.
Jerad Miller was a fan of Alex Jones, according to his Facebook page. In a February 2013 posting, Miller told people to read Jones' website, writing, “infowars.com get informed or get stupid”:
Miller frequently shared content from Jones on Facebook, including conspiracy theories relating to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, FEMA-related gun confiscation, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives:
