Five Men From Washington Among 31 Arrested Near Idaho Pride Event

COEUR D'ALENE, ID —Five Washington men were among the 31 arrested Saturday after they were found inside a U-Haul truck close to a Pride in the Park event in this northwest Idaho city, according to KREM.

Those arrested are believed to have ties to Patriot Front, a white nationalist hate group, police said. The group was allegedly headed to start a riot as the Pride event was taking place.

The men were arrested after a tipster reported seeing people loading up into a U-Haul like "a little army" at a hotel parking lot in Coeur d' Alene, police said.

Inside the truck, police found the men all dressed in khakis with navy blue shirts, beige hats and a white cloth covering for their faces, according to authorities.

For now, all 31 men face a misdemeanor conspiracy to riot charge, according to CBS. Though as of Monday morning, they had not yet been formally charged. Kootenai County Sheriff's Office said it is unknown when their next court appearance will take place.

According to the KCSO, by Sunday afternoon, all 31 men had bonded out of the Kootenai County Jail.

The sheriff's office said those arrested in the U-Haul were from 12 states.

According to KCSO, Kootenai County Jail's daily in-custody log listed the five Washington residents as: Colton Michael Brown, 23, from Rovendale, Mishael Joshua Buster,22, from Spokane, James Michael Johnson, 36, from Concrete, Justin Michael Oleary,27, from Des Moines and Spencer Thomas Simpson,20, from Ellensburg.

The Patriot Front is a white supremacist neo-Nazi group whose members perceive Black Americans, Jews and LGBTQ people as enemies, Jon Lewis, a George Washington University researcher who specializes in homegrown violent extremism, told the the AP.

According to the Associated Press, one of the men booked into jail in connection with the thwarted riot was Thomas Ryan Rousseau, 23, of Grapevine, Texas, who has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as the founder of the group.

The Kootenai County Sheriff's Office reported that the men arrested were from:

• Michigan
• Texas
• Alabama
• Colorado
• Idaho
• Wyoming
• Utah
• South Dakota
• Washington
• Oregon
• Illinois
• Arkansas