Slaying Suspect Tate Seized in Missouri Hills

David C. Tate, a reputed member of a neo-Nazi group sought in the fatal shooting of a state trooper, was captured Saturday, police said.

Tate, 22, linked to the neo-Nazi group called The Order and charged with first-degree murder in the trooper’s death at a random traffic stop last Monday, was identified within hours of his arrest, said Capt. Lee Thompson of the Missouri Highway Patrol.

Hundreds of police officers using helicopters, dogs and roadblocks had searched the rugged Ozark Mountains on both sides of the Arkansas-Missouri border since the trooper was killed.

On Monday, Tate, of Athol, Ida., was indicted by a federal grand jury in Seattle on racketeering and conspiracy charges along with 22 other associates of The Order. He was charged with dealing in stolen property and participating in the killing of a member of The Order who vanished in May.

‘Hiding Under Bush’

Tate “was found in Forsyth. . . . It’s my understanding he was hiding under a bush,” said Highway Patrol Sgt. Ernest McCutchen.

Tate was unarmed and offered no resistance when he was captured, McCutchen said. Dogs were being used to trace Tate’s route in a search for weapons, he said.

Forsyth is about 10 miles from Branson, where Trooper Jimmie Linegar, 31, was shot dead and Trooper Allen Hines, 36, was wounded.

The Order is a violent offshoot of the Idaho-based Aryan Nations, which is closely tied to such anti-Jewish and anti-black groups as the Ku Klux Klan and the Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord (CSA).

Meanwhile, in the Ozarks near Three Brothers, Ark., 70 law officers maintained a vigil outside a CSA camp just south of the Missouri border, waiting for the surrender of a man described as the survivalist group’s spiritual leader.

Jim Ellison, 44, is charged with felony conspiracy to manufacture, possess and transfer automatic firearms and silencers.