EXTREMISMMurder of Dallas Police Officer Latest in String of Violent Sovereign Citizen Encounters with Law Enforcement

The murder of a police officer in Dallas last month by a suspected adherent of the sovereign citizen movement became the latest in an alarming rise of violent incidents this year involving individuals who subscribe to the extreme right-wing, anti-government ideology and law enforcement officials.

In fact, 2024 has been a record year for violent encounters between police and sovereign citizens. In the space of just six months between March and August 2024, sovereign citizens opened fire on police officers in five separate incidents, while in a sixth incident, police had to shoot an armed sovereign citizen after he tried to break his way into an airport and threatened them.

The latest confrontation occurred on the evening of August 29, 2024, as Dallas police officer Darron Burks was sitting in his police cruiser, waiting for his next call. He was approached by a man later identified as Corey Cobb-Bey, 30, who had parked his own vehicle nearby. After a brief discussion, Cobb-Bey suddenly pulled out a pistol and shot Burks at point-blank range in his patrol car, killing him.

Cobb-Bey then armed himself with a shotgun from his vehicle and waited for police to respond to the shooting. When additional officers arrived at the scene, Cobb-Bey fired on them as well, wounding two more officers, one critically, before finally fleeing in his vehicle with police in pursuit. After a chase of 20 miles, Cobb-Bey finally stopped.  As law enforcement officers exited their vehicles, Cobb-Bey emerged from his own vehicle carrying his shotgun, which he pointed at the police. Multiple officers fired at Cobb-Bey, killing him. Dallas police subsequently characterized the killing of Burks as an “ambush” and an “execution.”

An investigation of the killer by the ADL Center on Extremism (COE) revealed that Cobb-Bey had made filings and numerous online posts indicating his adherence to the anti-government extremist sovereign citizen movement, as well as to the religious sect Moorish Science Temple, which has considerable overlap with sovereign citizens.

The exact motive for Cobb-Bey’s murder of Officer Burks is unclear, but the extreme anti-government beliefs of the sovereign citizen movement can greatly heighten any antagonism adherents may have for law enforcement.