North Carolina Senate candidate in custody after hours of standoff with Cary police :: WRAL.com

A North Carolina political candidate was arrested Monday following a confrontation with Cary police — the culmination of an incident that began with threats on social media and included calls for WRAL to tell his side of the story.

Jonathan D. Miller, the Libertarian Party candidate for a Senate seat covering much of Cary and other parts of western Wake County, was arrested around 3 p.m. after a lengthy standoff with police near Cary’s Lochmere neighborhood. Resurrection Lutheran School, a private school near the scene of the standoff, was on yellow lockdown for part of Monday.

Miller’s account on X, formerly known as Twitter, had posted a number of social media messages Sunday evening and throughout the day Monday. The messages spoke of suicidal feelings and included apparent references to looking for police shootings.

“All the police are chasing me, guns drawn. This should be fun,” a message on Miller’s account said Monday morning, followed by another message saying: “I’ve got six shots and the high ground. I hope they don’t find me, but if they do, it’ll be one hell of a show.”

Officers were monitoring the posts and trying to speak to him early Monday. According to the Cary Police Department, officers conducted a welfare check around 8:26 a.m. at Miller’s home on Glen Echo Lane, just off Kildaire Farm Road.

Police eventually found him — “He had a gun and he was told not to touch it, and he took off running,” Cary Police Chief Terry Sult said at a news conference Monday — but the incident did not end in gunfire.

The standoff lasted several hours Monday at Miller’s apartment complex, ending with his arrest. Police said no one was injured during the confrontation. “He was in a dark place,” Sult said. “I felt like he was on his last leg.”

During the standoff, Miller called WRAL several times to tell his story and offer criticism of the Cary Police Department. He also referred to the great attention his social media posts received. Chase Oliver, the Libertarian Party’s 2024 presidential candidate, was among those who responded to Miller’s social media posts asking him not to kill himself or fight the police.

“Last night I was pretty depressed and suicidal, and I kind of put a suicide note on X, and it went pretty viral,” he told WRAL during one of the calls. “Actually, millions of people have seen it. I usually get about 50 views on my post, but this one went super viral on me. I spent the whole night crying, and angry, and upset, and depressed, and all the emotions. And this morning I was tired, but I had things I needed to do. And I didn’t kill myself.

“So I got up and made some coffee,” Miller continued, “and I had two sips of coffee, and I went out to smoke a cigarette, and while I was having a cigarette, a police officer came up to me, knew my name, saw that I had a revolver in a holster on my hip, so he pulled out his gun and told me to keep my hands off mine. I told him I was going to refuse that order, and I backed away slowly until I was far enough away from him to turn and run, then I turned and ran into the woods.

Miller — after hours of chasing — added: “They’ve been chasing me since this morning. They’re not very good at it. They should probably get some extra training to track someone down.”

When asked why he called WRAL, Miller responded, “I thought this story was probably going to make the news, so I thought you might have a few questions for me.”

Asked if he was injured, Miller told WRAL: “No. Not yet.”

“Are you afraid of getting hurt?” a WRAL employee asked Miller.

“A little,” he replied.

When asked why he was hiding in the woods, Miller replied, “Because I don’t want them to take me into custody and then lock me up in a hospital.” »

He later said he doubted he would get adequate treatment in a hospital. “If I go to the hospital, I’ll spend about 15 to 30 seconds every day with a doctor, and that will be my time to talk about it,” Miller told WRAL. “He’ll write me a (prescription) for a medicine that’s not helping me, and in a few days I’ll be back where I’m at now.”

As police closed in, he told WRAL, “I’ve been running in the woods all day. You know, sometimes I can see them, sometimes I can hear them. So they’re close, but they can’t find me.”

He added that he hoped police would eventually give up the chase. “I hope to wait for them and then disappear and never come back to Cary,” Miller said.

After police arrested Miller, the Cary police chief thanked WRAL for responding to the calls.

“We were able to coach whoever was talking to him a little bit, and we were able to monitor that conversation courtesy of WRAL,” Sult said. “It gave us additional insight, very consistent with what we were dealing with. It bridged the gap.”

Miller is running for the seat currently held by Democratic Sen. Gale Adcock. Republican Party candidate Philip Hensley is also running for the seat.

Get help: County-by-county guide to mental health and crisis resources in North Carolina

If you are having suicidal thoughts or a mental health crisis, call or text 988 or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255. Veterans can press “1” after dialing 988 to connect directly to the Veterans Crisis Lifeline. For text messages, veterans should continue to send the Veterans Crisis Lifeline short code: 838255.