6 Children, 27 Dogs Hold Off Officers

Six children were holed up in a rural north Idaho house Wednesday, armed with guns and 27 dogs in a bizarre standoff that police vowed to keep from turning violent.

“It seems like an absurdity to enter into an armed confrontation with children, and I’m not willing to allow the situation to escalate,” Bonner County Sheriff Phil Jarvis said as the incident entered its second day.

After a 15-year-old boy inside the house released a pack of snarling dogs at approaching officers and yelled at his siblings to “get the guns out,” Jarvis pulled all sheriff’s deputies off the property except for two posted at the end of the street. He said he was determined to negotiate an end to the situation.

The incident was unfolding about 25 miles from Ruby Ridge, the scene of a 1992 standoff involving the family of white separatist Randy Weaver that led to the death of Weaver’s wife and son and a federal agent--and became an anthem for the anti-government movement in America.

“We’ve decided it’s better if we just cool it off a little bit,” Jarvis said.

The confrontation began Tuesday after police arrested the children’s mother, JoAnn Dunn McGuckin, 45, on felony charges of child neglect and attempted to go back to the house to make food and housing arrangements for the children, ages 8 to 16. Authorities said there was no water, power, telephone or sewer service at the house, and they appeared to be eating soup made of lake water and lily pads cooked over a campfire.

Neighbors said the McGuckins were a once-popular family who regularly socialized with neighbors in the rural neighborhood southeast of Sandpoint, Idaho, hosting the neighborhood Christmas party every year and inviting neighborhood children over to play.

Michael McGuckin, who died May 12 of multiple sclerosis, once owned a sawmill in the area and was a former member of the local Knights of Columbus. The family regularly attended the local Roman Catholic church.

But police and family friends say JoAnn McGuckin began suffering from mental problems several years ago, and as her husband fell ill, he began to believe in his wife’s fears.

“She was just paranoid that people were trying to hurt her. Airplanes went over, and it would be people trying to find them. They put stuff out on the road to keep the dust down, and it would be people trying to poison them,” said Ginger Campbell, a former family friend.

“In time, he came to believe it too. He told us not to call him, for our own safety, so these people wouldn’t hurt us,” she said. “Then they got rid of their telephone and they got rid of their mailbox, and it became impossible to talk to them. And with the dogs there, there was just no way to get close to them.”

Spencer Campbell, her 15-year-old grandson, said he grew up playing with the McGuckin children. “We used to hang out with them all the time. They used to be halfway normal, but now, they got kind of all freaky.

“They, like, sent us a letter saying they were getting searched for by the mob and saying the government was trying to kill them with witchcraft. Their dad had multiple sclerosis, and he was just decaying for years. And that’s when everybody started getting really weird.”

Father Dennis Day of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church said church members regularly attempted to take food and offer other assistance to the family but were rebuffed.

“We had a lady parishioner who would go and just love those kids. Those kids are spectacular kids, but they haven’t been eating right, and they’re not well cared for. They’re not socialized,” Day said.

At their father’s funeral earlier this month, he said, “their behavior was inappropriate. There wasn’t a tear, there was no kind of grief visible to them at all. It was like he was already dead to them in some way.”

The last time the parishioner approached the house, Day said, “she was told by the parents that if she ever came back, they would meet her with a shotgun. At that point, what do you do? There’s nothing more we can do in outreach to them. You just have to leave them alone. But everybody who knew this family could see it coming.”

The situation escalated May 21, when sheriff’s deputies approached the family, apparently to address concerns about the children’s welfare that became apparent at the funeral.

Stephanie Almy, a neighbor, was walking her small American Eskimo dog on the gravel road outside the driveway at the same time.

“I just came to their driveway, and out came about eight dogs, just running full speed, and their objective was, I’m sure, to attack and kill my dog,” Almy said. “It was kind of a tug of war. I had my dog around the neck and the head, and they were getting her legs and her body.”

The deputies rushed to aid her, and one of them threw his body on top of hers, shielding her from the dogs. Almy required 17 stitches in one arm. The deputy and Almy’s dog had to be stitched up, as well. JoAnn McGuckin agreed at that time to put the dogs in the basement.

Knowing the family was “absolutely stone broke,” Jarvis said, deputies lured McGuckin out of the house Tuesday by telling her she could access some financial aid if she made a telephone call. At that time, she was arrested on the neglect charge was later hospitalized with chest pains.

“She’s mentally unbalanced,” Jarvis said, and it was clear her 16-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son had been taking care of the family for some time.

A deputy who knew the family went back to try to arrange care for the children. “He was attempting to talk to the 15-year-old son and that child got angry or something and ran back to the house and yelled back to the other children, ‘Get the guns out,’ ” Jarvis said. “And they let the dogs go.”

As a pack of snarling dogs rushed out, the deputy fired his weapon. “We don’t know if he struck any of them or not, but they scattered,” the sheriff said. Law enforcement officials called to the children several times on a bullhorn, telling them they were only offering food and help, but the children did not respond.

At that point, they decided to pull out. “Mentally, he’s 15 years old, or maybe less, but he has assumed the responsibilities of being the man in the family. He is extremely knowledgeable of survivalist techniques and is, we are told, a very good rifle shot and has lived in the woods all of his life,” the sheriff said. “For anyone to go up the driveway would be just asking for it, not only from the firearm but from these 27 very vicious animals.”

Sheriff’s officials said they would attempt to communicate with the children, either by restoring telephone service if possible, delivering a telephone or bringing in a former family friend to talk on the bullhorn. A former family priest popular with the children was said to be trying to contact them late Wednesday.

The children’s 19-year-old sister, who left the family several months ago, has been trying to help but is too fearful to approach the house, Jarvis said.

“The three oldest children dislike her very intensely because they believe she abandoned them when she left the house,” he said.