This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Police in Cary, North Carolina, arrested Libertarian state Senate candidate Jonathan Miller on Monday after an hours-long armed standoff that unfolded near a private K-8 school and played out in real time on social media.
Miller, who is challenging a Democratic incumbent for a North Carolina Senate seat, began posting cryptic messages on X Monday morning suggesting he was fleeing law enforcement. “The whole police department is chasing me with guns drawn. This should be fun,” he wrote around 9:38 a.m. “I’ve got six shots and the high ground. I hope they don’t find me, but if they do it’s going to be a hell of a show.”
Police said they had received calls from concerned members of the public after Miller posted messages Sunday night suggesting he was considering suicide. Officers went to check on his welfare Monday morning and encountered him carrying a firearm. Police said he fled after being ordered not to touch the weapon.
Several people, including 2024 Libertarian presidential nominee Chase Oliver, urged Miller online to put down his weapon and surrender. Responding to Oliver at 10:04 a.m., Miller said he had “reached the tree line,” suggesting he was trying to hide in nearby woods. When another user offered to send him money, Miller said he had “gave away all [his] money to charity” and didn’t “want or need yours.”
Local NBC affiliate WRAL reached Miller by phone during the standoff. He described the night before the confrontation.
“Last night I was pretty depressed and suicidal, and I sort of put a suicide note on X, and it has gone quite viral,” he told WRAL. “I spent all night crying, and angry and upset, and depressed, and all the emotions. And this morning I was tired, but I had things I needed to do. And I didn’t kill myself. So I got up and made coffee, and I had two sips of coffee, and I went outside to have a cigarette, and while I was having a cigarette, a police officer approached me, knew my name, saw that I had a holstered revolver on my hip, so he drew his weapon and told me to keep my hands away from mine. I told him I was going to refuse that order, and I backed away slowly until I was far enough away from him to turn and run, and then I turned and ran into the woods.”
Cary Police Chief Terry Sult said Miller had an outstanding warrant for being a felon in possession of a firearm. The standoff unfolded near Resurrection Lutheran School, a private K-8 school that was placed under a code yellow lockdown for part of the day as officers searched the area. Police urged pedestrians and drivers nearby to stay clear while the search continued.
Around 1:46 p.m., Miller posted an update to X: “They had some hostage negotiator type dude call me. While I was distracted talking with him on the phone they were moving in around me. Luckily I spotted one of them and took off.”
Officers closed in on Miller around 3 p.m. and arrested him without incident. No shots were fired. He faces charges of communicating threats, resisting a public officer, going armed to the terror of the people and possession of a firearm by a felon.
The Libertarian Party of North Carolina said it was “aware of the situation” and thanked law enforcement for “pursuing a solution without involving violence.”
Miller had been campaigning on a standard Libertarian platform that includes weakening legal protections for police, repealing drug laws and reducing economic regulations.
