This diary may turn out to be about the NSA / telephone records / Bush - I think I can connect the dots.
It's Day Two of the manhunt in Tennessee and family members seem to be lining up for their 15-minutes of fame:
From Knoxnews.com
KINGSTON -- A cousin of fugitive Clifford Leon Houston described today the chaotic aftermath of a fatal shootout that left dead a Roane County deputy and his friend who was riding along on patrol.
Houston, 47, and his brother, Rocky Joe Houston, 46, are accused of ambushing Deputy Bill Jones, 53, and friend Mike Brown, age unavailable, about 6:12 p.m. Thursday on Barnard Narrows Road, south of Kingston. Rocky Houston was wounded and is in custody, while his brother remains at large.
Kim Carroll said the Houston brothers arrived on a four-wheeler at her parents' house, which is about a quarter-mile from the scene of the shooting.
"We just had a gunfight," she said the brothers told her parents, Ray and Juanita Johnson, as they walked in the door.
[Carroll] said her father told them they were not going to have a gunfight there and said, "Give me those guns."
The Houstons handed over two rifles and a handgun [and] told her father he needed to take Rocky Houston to the hospital.
Rocky Houston pulled down his pants and showed them where he had been shot in the hip, Carroll said. He also was shot in the wrist ... "There was lots of blood."
Her father left to take Rocky Houston to Methodist Medical Center in Oak Ridge, and dropped off Leon Houston in the area of Midway Cemetery, according to Carroll and the TBI.
Rocky Houston was arrested at the hospital and taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center, where is being treated for his wounds.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) says he has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder. The fugitive Leon Houston has been charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
Now this is not about some convenience store robbery gone awry. And apparently a lot of people predicted it was going to happen sooner or later.
I'm going to apologize up front for the long quote that follows. So much in here that bears repeating:
The Houstons have contended they are the targets of a deadly government plot and have filed numerous lawsuits in U.S. District Court. They have had frequent brushes with law enforcement.
For the past week neighbors reported seeing the brothers patrolling the borders of their property with assault rifles draped around their necks, according to Marty Miles, Roane County Juvenile Court director.
"They've lost their minds really," Miles said.
The brothers reportedly have a bunker behind their property containing a large cache of weapons.
As Carroll described Thursday night's events, teams of law enforcement searched the houses of Rocky Houston and his father, Clyde Houston.
The searches are part of a massive manhunt using helicopters, an armored personnel carrier and SWAT teams. The FBI, TBI and law enforcement agencies from across East Tennessee are trying to find Leon Houston in a heavily wooded area off Dogtown Road and Highway 72 in Roane County.
The area has been sealed off, and Houston is believed armed and dangerous, the TBI said.
The confrontation took place at a family farmhouse left to Leon Houston after his aunt died about a month ago, Carroll said. He was fixing up the house, which is situated in sort of a triangle with the Johnsons' house, Carroll's and Clyde Houston's. Rocky Houston's house is about a half-mile away.
Jones pulled his cruiser into Leon Houston's driveway to serve felony warrants on both Houstons.
Witnesses who were at the Houston home said the deputy was still inside his patrol car when the Houstons began firing shots into the vehicle with a high-powered rifle.
"A neighbor claims he heard at least twenty or more shots fired."
Leon Houston is intimately familiar with the rugged area.
"He knows this area like the back of his hand," Carroll said. "He deer hunts in here."
She said he once told her that the search for abortion clinic and Atlanta Olympis bomber Eric Rudolph, who eluded officers in the North Carolina mountains, was "nothing."
"He said he could hide in the country, and no one could find him," Carroll said.
Rocky Houston is a former longtime Wackenhut security officer who has filed numerous lawsuits against Roane County, state and local law enforcement and judges and federal officials.
Roane County Sheriff David Haggard said he belives Leon Houston is "still armed."
"We have no reason to believe otherwise."
Haggard termed the death of Jones, 53, and ride-along passenger Brown, an "ambush."
TBI's Johnson said the Houstons are well known to local and state law enforcement authorities.
"They are very anti-government. They've been charged with assault, and they've threatened public officials. They've been in trouble on numerous occasions -- so much so that the director of TBI (Mark Gwyn) was familiar with them," she said.
Jones is believed to have wounded Rocky Houston with his .357-caliber Glock pistol during the confrontation.
Midway elementary, middle and high schools were called off for today as a result of the shooting.
Scores of local, state and federal law officers responded to the neighborhood after the shooting.
Officers recovered numerous weapons from the home where the shooting occurred. ...