On this day, May 3, in 1997, militant separatists claiming Texas was a sovereign nation ended a weeklong standoff in the mountains near El Paso.
Members of the so-called Republic of Texas group believed the state was illegally annexed by the United States in 1845. None of the members were native Texans.
The showdown began after the group stormed the house of a neighbor in a hail of gunfire in retaliation for the arrest of two of the group’s members.
Two of the armed and camouflaged men fled into the mountains where they were hunted down by Texas Rangers. One of the men died in a gunbattle.
The group’s leader Richard McLaren, 48, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
— Scott McCabe
