Thread: Montana fugitive David Burgert featured on CNN The Hunt Sunday night

Where is David Burgert?

Montana fugitive David Burgert featured on CNN Sunday night

CNN crew May 5 in the Daily Inter Lake newsroom.
Posted: Friday, August 1, 2014 5:45 pm | Updated: 8:09 pm, Fri Aug 1, 2014.
The Daily Inter Lake

The hunt for David Burgert, a former Flathead Valley militia member and longtime fugitive from a Missoula County shootout, is going national on Sunday.

A new show on CNN called “The Hunt With John Walsh” devotes the second half hour of Sunday night’s episode to Burgert, who first gained fame as the leader of the Project 7 militia group in Flathead County.

Burgert spent seven years in federal prison after faking his own death in 2002, then became a fugitive again in 2011 when he was involved in a shootout with Missoula County deputies and vanished into the woods.

The show, produced by Zero Point Zero Production Inc., airs at 7 p.m. MDT and will be repeated at 10 p.m.

Walsh, the host of “The Hunt,” begins the show by reminding viewers that his 6-year-old son Adam Walsh was kidnapped and murdered in 1981. As a result, Walsh, who previously hosted “America’s Most Wanted,” said he learned “how to catch these bastards and bring ’em back to justice.”

Even people familiar with Burgert’s saga will probably learn something new on the show, which begins with Burgert’s early criminal activities as a young man and then shows him growing into the leader of Project 7, a paramilitary group from the early 2000s that espoused violence as a means of political expression.

His disappearance and subsequent arrest and trial is illustrated with multiple photos and headlines from the Daily Inter Lake. Managing Editor Frank Miele is seen in one brief clip filmed in the newsroom.

Getting extensive airtime is Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry, who was undersheriff at the time of Burgert’s 2002 disappearance.

Also featured in an interview is Larry “Chance” Chezem, Burgert’s No. 2 in Project 7 and a former candidate for Flathead County sheriff. Chezem was found guilty of charges stemming from his involvement with Project 7 but still defends the importance of citizen vigilance against government overreach.

Another highlight from the Flathead segment of the show is a tape of Burgert making an announcement on KGEZ radio with conservative talk-show host John Stokes: “I need to let you know as well as the listeners know that those active members that know what I am talking about, they need to secure the areas that they have been assigned to secure. Nobody, nobody surrender your weapons to nobody...”

About a year after Burgert’s release from federal prison, he got into a shootout with Missoula deputies on June 12, 2011, after he was reported to be parked and sleeping for five nights at the “Fort Fizzle” campground near Lolo.

Dashboard cam footage of Missoula County Deputy Sheriff Will Newsom in pursuit of Burgert after he runs a stop sign provides insight into how Burgert tried to lure deputies into a secluded area. Burgert heads into the woods and the deputy follows. When Burgert shoots at Newsom, the deputy shoots back, thinking he has hit him, but when he checks behind Burgert’s car, the fugitive is gone.

That was the last anyone saw Burgert, although during a lengthy search in the hills around Lolo, authorities found caches of supplies left in the area.

Walsh says at the end of the show that he believes Burgert is still out there on the run and makes a call for tips at the end of the program to solve the “big mystery”:

“Where is David Burgert?”

If you know the answer to that question, call authorities or call the television show at 1-866-THE-HUNT.

http://www.dailyinterlake.com/member...a4bcf887a.html

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David Burgert is wanted for firing on two sheriff's deputies.


Police tell how Burgert eluded them.




Montana is no stranger to people who espouse anti-government sentiments. Some are simply concerned about the federal government and higher tax rates. Others share more extremist views.

And then there's David Burgert.

"He's the kind of guy who would do whatever he could to provoke you. I just think he felt things should be his way," Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry said.

When he was younger, friends and family say, Burgert wanted to help others, particularly "people whom he perceived to be weaker," according to journalist Jamie Rogers. So he decided to enlist in the Marine Corps.

"I think in his mind, joining the military was a way for him to get to be a hero, to live out his fantasies of helping and saving people," said Rogers, who has interviewed Burgert's family and friends and written extensively about him.

"When he got there, guys (were) screaming in his face every day, (and that) didn't work with his chemistry."

By the time he left the Marines, "violence had become a main form of expression," Rogers said. "His mother says that he used to press his jeans, put on a cowboy hat and get really gussied up to go fight."

Burgert had numerous encounters with law enforcement, starting in 1985, according to Rogers, with a bizarre drunken incident in which he broke into a trailer to eat a sandwich and, when he took off, left his loaded gun behind.

He called police to get his pistol back, and they arrested him. He served four years in prison for that incident.

After his release from prison, he applied to join a search and rescue team in Flathead County, but his criminal background prevented that.

"So he just becomes this like citizen watchdog, in his mind," Rogers said.

But he maintained a very hostile relationship with law enforcement. "He was just one of those very confrontational individuals," Curry said.

Rogers put it this way: "The guy was notorious for just being a pain in the ass."

In 2002, an FBI and police investigation uncovered that Burgert had been the leader of a militia group known as Project 7, based in the Kalispell, Montana, area.

The militia's No. 2, Larry "Chance" Chezem, said Project 7's focus was to be active participants in the republic to "keep government in line."
But Curry disagreed. "The goal of this group was to assassinate people who had wronged them."

After authorities found a massive stockpile of ammunition and weapons -- including illegal machine guns – Project 7 members including Chezem and Burgert were arrested and convicted of federal weapons violations. Burgert was sent back to prison, this time for about seven years.

After his released from prison -- reportedly in March 2010 -- Burgert was allegedly squatting at a campsite near Lolo, Montana, about 10 miles outside Missoula, when someone called 911 to report suspicious behavior. After Missoula County deputies arrived to investigate, Burgert fled the scene in his Jeep Cherokee.

After a long car chase, Burgert drove off-road, got out of his car and fired at the officers. They returned fire, but when they approached Burgert's car, they found that he had disappeared in the woods. A five‐day manhunt with cadaver dogs never found any trace of him.

To this day, Burgert remains missing and is wanted by U.S. Marshals.

They say he is a skilled survivalist and consider him to be armed and dangerous.

• On the run: Since June 12, 2011
• The crime: Firing on two sheriff's deputies
• Where could he be: Unknown

More on David Burgert

• FBI, National Guard join in manhunt for ex-militia leader
• Missoula Independent: The two David Burgerts
• More details from U.S. Marshals (PDF)
• 2002: More about Burgert’s Project 7 militia

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2014/06/us/the-hunt/