An Arizona man accused of forcing a National Guard convoy off a Texas highway and holding 11 soldiers at gunpoint earlier this week has been charged by the federal government.
A criminal complaint was filed Friday by the U.S. district attorney in Texas, charging 66-year-old Larry Lee Harris with assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon.
He remains jailed and faces up to 20 years in prison on the federal count if convicted.
Harris still faces several state felony charges, including aggravated assault, unlawful restraint, impersonating a public servant, unlawfully carrying a weapon and interfering with military forces.
The Guardsmen, in three white vans, were delivering coronavirus vaccines to the town of Matador in North Texas. The convoy was on Interstate 27 just outside Lubbock when a man brandishing a Colt .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol pulled up alongside and ordered them to pull over.
Wielding the gun on the side of the road, Harris identified himself as a detective and ordered all the troops out of the vehicles, claiming he was investigating the kidnapping of a woman and a 12-year-old girl, police said.
The soldiers complied with his demands to search the vehicles, and after finding nothing, the man allowed the troops to drive away.
Afterward, however, Harris pulled a U-turn in his white Chevrolet pickup and swerved into oncoming traffic to stop the convoy again, federal prosecutors allege. On the side of the road again, he demanded to search an engine compartment, according to the statement.
At that point, someone among the crew called 911, and soon Idalou police officers were on the scene, where Harris was placed under arrest.
No shots were fired, and the troops involved were not injured.
Harris was found to have three pistol magazines and other ammunition in his possession, however, the soldiers were unarmed.
Police said the man allegedly began the pursuit soon after the soldiers departed an armory in Lubbock with the vaccine supplies in tow. After they stopped for drinks at a gas station, Harris was hot on their trail, police said.
He will appear in federal court at a date still to be determined, according to a statement by Prerak Shah, the acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas.
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