This story may or may not involve a sovereign citizen. It does involve a police ambush and the police shooting a good Samaritan.
Investigators said they found a full-page, handwritten note with the title “sociopath sovereign citizens” taped on a bedroom wall of Ronald Troyke.
The news reviewed a number of police documents suggesting that the handwritten note was interpreted by police to mean the following. It “indicated a planned attack on law enforcement officers and provided a motive of law enforcement officers acting without integrity and not being held accountable.”
In one of the new stories, I saw a portion of the note where it seemed as though the shooter was referring to the police officers as sovereign citizens. Because I could not read the whole note, I do not know precisely what it meant.
Between interviews with his family and the analysis of his electronic devices, Mr. Troyke was focused on “anti-police/police misconduct and First Amendment auditor videos.” His family indicated that he was obsessed with these videos and ideas.
His family described him as a loner, especially after the death of his father. He worked as a truck driver and filed for bankruptcy in 2013. His criminal record included third-degree assault from 1992 but no more information is available about that incident.
What led up to the shooting?
According to the shooter’s brother, Mr. Troyke had been watching “all this YouTube stuff and all this constant negativity about the police and the negative things they do… He gets up… early in the morning and… calls my sister, tells her all about… negative police stuff that YouTube always shows and all the lies and crap they give out… he just kept watching it and watching it… and I think this is part of it.”
Mr. Troyke called his sister and said some things which prompted the family to request a welfare check. “Ronnie didn’t seem right at all. Not at all. He was crying saying “I’m sorry.”
When the police arrived to do a welfare check, they learned that the address belonged to a business where Mr. Troyke had a post-office box. It suggests that he was luring them to a certain location in order to kill them. To the police, this was an ambush.
Soon thereafter, the police report seeing a suspicious person nearby, a male, who made a “weird noise and showed them a condom.” The male was acting oddly, walking in circles.
It’s not fully clear how this happened but Mr. Troyke shot and killed Officer Beesley. Responding officers then mistakenly killed a good Samaritan, Johnny Hurley, who, before being shot by police, shot and killed Mr. Troyke.
In total, three individuals died that day.
We do not know for certain whether Ronald Troyke was a sovereign citizen but he did have “expressed hatred of police officers.” It also seems as though he was attempting to ambush police, seemingly to kill them and possibly even to have them kill him, in a suicide-by-cop scenario.
Update: Nov 26, 2021: New documents shed like on the motive of Ronald Troyke. It seems more likely that he may have been a first amendment auditor rather than a sovereign citizen.
He writes in a note to police, he writes: “I dedicate the killing of A.P.D. to AurorA (sic) P.D. since there (sic) in the limelight. I’ve been fooled most of my life as to really what kind of people you really are and I’ve came to a conclusion you government people you sociopaths that wear that bade (sic) and those we never see that work behind the scenes. You are exactly the same people you arrest…Do you understand sovereign citizens. We the people were never your enemy. But we are NOW. As you can see here today. You brought this on yourselves…”
In the letter he titled “Sociopath Sovereign Citizens,” he writes: “The people have had enough. Do you understand AurorA P.D seems to be the troubled police agency in Colorado. So once again I dedicate what I did to AurorAPD especially those officer involved in the killing and mocking of Elijah McClain, also the drunken pig. My DUI changed my life. No accountable the way its always been. I also dedicate my actions to Arvada P.D. officers another coward pig. I seen what he did to.”
The fact that is most suggestive of him being a first amendment auditor involves an incident from July 7. A man was arrested for trespassing outside of a library and Troyke inserts himself into the incident, yelling at officers and then begins to film them.
“Troyke: I’m gonna film you guys, because you’re sovereign citizens, that’s why I’m filming you. Every movement a sovereign citizen makes, every word they speak needs to be filmed. Cause you guys are terrible people. Not all of you’s are, but there’s too many that aren’t no good so we have to assume all of you’s are bad. I figured that would be – don’t speak to me – that don’t mean nothing, everything disappears you guys don’t have body cams why is that? Are you guys special?
Arvada Police Officer: We’re actually in the works of getting them.
Troyke: Well you’ve waited too long for that. You’re soveren citizens, there’s no way to explain a police officer –
APD: I’m not a sovereign citizen.
Troyke: You’re sovereign citizens, I’ve seen it with my own eyes. You do all the things to people you don’t want done to yourself, and we’re supposed to appreciate your kind.”
The police noted most recently that this case involved a major mental health component: “It’s obvious that there’s a lot of components to the suspects motives, mental health probably being one of the primary concerns that needs to be addressed on a state or national level.”