US

Leader Of Black Militia Group With Ties To Dallas Cop Killer Threatens ‘All Out War’

Chuck Ross Investigative Reporter
Font Size:

The leader of a black liberation group with ties to Dallas cop killer Micah X. Johnson issued a veiled threat of “all out war” following his arrest on Sunday during a protest in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Babu Omowale, the co-founder of the Huey P. Newton Gun Club and national minister of defense of the People’s New Black Panther Party, posted his thoughts on Facebook following his arrest at a rally in Baton Rouge over the police shooting of Alton Sterling there last week.

“I’m out of jail and back on the ground with the people I’m not leaving shit we in this bitch,” wrote Omowale, who said that Baton Rouge police charged him and other members of his paramilitary group for blocking traffic.

That’s the same charge filed in the arrests of Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson and Breitbart News reporter Lee Stranahan.

“All bonds were paid by the people around the country, damn thank you very much,” Omowale continued.

“I’m never doing another open carry fuck that next time I bring my guns out it will be all out war,” he added.

Omowale issued a veiled threat in another post.

“Why would anyone think we would attack a police station while they are surrounding it, you have to know we’re not that stupid nor are we on a suicide mission,” he wrote, adding “if we were going to fight they would have never seen us coming.”

Omowale’s gun club, which he founded in Dallas in Aug. 2014 and is named after Black Panther founder Huey Newton, frequently rallies in support of Texas’ open-carry gun laws. The group advocates for minorities to exercise their Second Amendment rights while also protesting the police.

Johnson, who killed five Dallas police officers on Thursday, “liked” the group on his Facebook page. Omowale has said in interviews that he had seen Johnson at black liberation events in the past and that he was known to members of the group. He said he had never personally met Johnson, who was killed by a robot bomb during a standoff early Friday morning.

Reuters and other news outlets have reported that federal investigators are looking into Johnson’s links with radical groups. The Huey P. Newton Gun Club and People’s New Black Panther Party were not specifically named, but both have embraced violent rhetoric and called for armed resistance.

At one rally in Austin last year, armed members of the gun club chanted “Oink, oink; bang, bang” and “the only good pig is a pig that’s dead.”

It’s unclear if Omowale is legally allowed to own a firearm.

As The Daily Caller reported over the weekend, the militia leader has a 1992 felony aggravated assault conviction on his record. Numerous photos on the internet show him carrying rifles and other weapons at open-carry and anti-police demonstrations. Omowale’s ability to legally own a gun would hinge on whether he is considered a convicted felon in Texas. That status depends on how courts dispossessed his case. (RELATED: Feds Investigating Links Between Dallas Cop Killer And Black Liberation Militia Groups)

Omowale, whose given name is Darrin Reed, was arrested two times the next year for unlawful possession of a weapon, Texas state records show.

The gun club did not respond to an emailed request to interview Omowale.

Texas does allow the restoration of gun ownership rights for felons under some circumstances. Felons can own guns in their residence five years after release from jail or after they clear parole. Felons can also restore their gun rights with a pardon from the governor.

This article has been updated with additional information.

Follow Chuck on Twitter