FBI: Armed Former Marine Threatened to 'Re-Create Waco' with New Orleans Attack

By Claire Taylor

Source The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate

A former U.S. Marine and New Iberia resident was arrested Dec. 12 as he drove to New Orleans with guns and a gas cannister, allegedly to carry out a terrorist attack.

Micah James Legnon, 28, of Leona Drive in New Iberia, was being held as of Tuesday afternoon in the Iberia Parish Jail.

He is charged in federal court in Lafayette with threats in interstate commerce.

Legnon is suspected of being associated with the Turtle Island Liberation Front, described by federal officials as "a far-left, pro-Palestine, anti-government and anti-capitalist group."

Four members of that group were arrested recently in California for planning several New Year's Eve terrorist attacks in the Los Angeles area, FBI Special Agent Paul Sellers wrote in a Dec. 12 criminal complaint against Legnon.

Someone in a group chat in which Legnon, using the name Kateri the Witch, was allegedly involved, shared a Facebook post showing masked Border Patrol agents arresting an individual on a rooftop. That person wrote that it is "time to recreate Waco" with ICE.

Border Patrol agents have been deployed in the New Orleans area making arrests of immigrants and others.

That group chat threat, Sellers wrote, is seen as Legnon's intention "to convey a threat through interstate commerce."

In 1993, federal law enforcement agencies had a 51-day standoff in Waco at a religious compound of the Branch Davidians. The compound was set on fire by members. More than 70 of them died, many from gunshot wounds by fellow cult members, Sellers wrote.

Legnon was under FBI surveillance due to his affiliation with those plotting the terrorist attacks in Los Angeles, four of whom were arrested recently.

Around 12:30 p.m. Dec. 12 FBI agents observed Legnon loading what appeared to be an assault rifle and body armor into his vehicle at his residence.

Also on Dec. 12 in a Signal group chat, "Order of the Black Lotus," DarkWitch She/Her, who Sellers believed to be Legnon, chatted with others, writing that he was on his way to New Orleans and would be there in about two hours. Video showed a gun and bullet proof vest on the car seat.

Sellers wrote that he believes Legnon intended to travel to New Orleans to carry out an attack and noted he is a former member of the Marines with combat training.

Legnon was also employed by the New Iberia Police Department, KATC reported. He was hired by the police department in August 2019, after being honorably discharged from the United States Marine Corps. He was placed on administrative leave by the NIPD in May 2022 and resigned in September 2022, records there show.

On Dec. 12, Sellers wrote, he and others with the FBI executed a federal search warrant on Legnon's New Iberia residence where they found sniper training manuals, SWAT training manuals, assault rifles and multiple rounds of ammunition.

FBI agents stopped Legnon as he traveled east on U.S. Highway 90 toward New Orleans. They found an assault rifle, a pistol, a gas canister and body armor, similar to the items shown in the Signal group chat by DarkWitch.

Agents, also on Dec. 12, using a federal search warrant, searched Legnon's cellphone.

On Tuesday, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill issued a statement about the arrest.

"It's extremely disturbing to find out that someone from Louisiana was arrested for his role in planning an attack on federal immigration enforcement agents in New Orleans," she said. "While the FBI is the lead on this investigation, if state charges can be lodged, we will seek them. I'm grateful for the extraordinary work by FBI Director Kash Patel and his agents to keep America safe from extremists and terrorists who want to inflict harm on immigration enforcement agents and the American people."

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