The man who is accused of shooting a Daytona Beach Police officer in the head on Wednesday wasĀ captured early Saturday in Georgia.
Police said Othal Wallace was hiding out in a treehouse on land affiliated with a black nationalist paramilitary organization.
Although Wallace had an arsenal with him when arrested, he was taken into custody without injuries.
Wallace is accused of shooting Daytona Beach Police officer Jason Raynor in the head. He faces a charge of attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer.
Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said a task force of collaborating Police agencies arrested Wallace at about 2:30 a.m. Saturday on land affiliated with a group calling itself the āNot F-ing Around Coalitionā in DeKalb County, Georgia, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
āOthal Wallace was located hiding in a tree house,ā Young said. āIn the tree house with Wallace was multiple flash bangs, rifle plates, body armor, two rifles, two handguns and several boxes of ammunition.ā
Multiple weapons were also recovered, he said. Several other people were at the site when the arrest was made he said.
After Wallace was arrested, Daytona Beach officers used Raynorās handcuffs on Wallace.
Young said Wallace was full of bravado upon his arrest.
āāYou guys know who I am. You know what Iām capable of and it could have been a lot worse,'ā Young quoted Wallace as saying.
Young said Raynorās family was told about the arrest.
āAs you can imagine there was a huge sigh of relief,ā Young said. āAnd Iām hoping they canĀ get a few hours of sleep finally. Now they can just solely focus on Officer Raynor and his recovery.ā
Young creditedĀ timingĀ and surveillance and technology for the peaceful arrest despite Wallaceās cache of weapons.
Young gave an upbeat assessment of Raynorās condition.
āThere were very positive signs of improvement,ā Young said. āHe still has a ways to go. But basically from his condition right now they feel comfortable moving forward with more testing because theyāve determined that heās now strong enough to endure more testing.
āAs of right now hisĀ outlook, it is improving. Itās a positiveĀ one,ā Young added. āBut we are just going to continue to pray that he continues to heal.ā
Young said surveillance, technology and teamwork helped lead to Wallaceās arrest.
āOur families worry about us just like anybodyās family members would but for them to just consistently stay at it and stay out here in these uncertain conditions, not knowing exactly where he was and who was working with him,ā Young said. āBut they never gave up. They stayed inĀ the fight and again Iām just extremely proud of all of them.ā
A profile on the NFAC in the Atlantic it said the group āhas a militarylike structure, fields an army of hundreds of heavily armed men and women, subscribes to esoteric racist doctrines, opposes Black Lives Matter, and follows a leader who thinks we live in a period of apocalyptic tribulation signaled by the movements of celestial bodies. Its modus operandi is to deploy a more fearsome Black militia wherever white militias dare to appear.ā
In an interview, the leader of the group, who goes by the name of Grandmaster Jay and whose real name is John Fitzgerald Johnson, called laws ājust paperā and said the Black Lives Matter movement is too tame for his taste.
His goal, he said, is to rally all black gun owners to his cause.
āIf I assemble 1 million legal guns, I have the fifth-largest ground army on the planet. I think thatās a pretty significant indication,ā he said.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
