Mto Songwe
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One Texas Secessionist Who Fled Into Mountains Is Killed
A member of the militant secessionist group known as the Republic of Texas was shot and killed today in a gun battle with the Texas authorities in the Davis Mountains here.
The man was one of two group members who fled on foot on Saturday, as the police held their fire and as the republic's leader and four other followers were surrendering. He was killed after both fugitives fired at a state police helicopter overhead and at several redbone hounds that had been tracking them. The other fugitive was not captured.
At least three of the hounds were shot by the fugitives. One was killed, two were expected to survive, and a fourth was missing late tonight, the authorities said.
In Dallas today, a 25-count Federal indictment was unsealed against the group's leader, Richard L. McLaren, on charges related to phony Republic of Texas checks.
This evening, state troopers on horseback rode into the mountains here to retrieve the body of the dead fugitive. The body was taken to Marfa, Tex., but the authorities did not say which man it was.
The two fugitives, who were armed with deer hunting rifles, an AK-47 and possibly one or more handguns, have been identified as Richard Keyes 3d, 21, of Kansas, and Mike Matson of Chicago, whose age the authorities now say is 48. Late tonight, Mike Cox, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety, described the dead man as ''middle-aged,'' indicating that it was likely to be Mr. Matson, but there was no official confirmation of that.
A version of this article appears in print on May 6, 1997, Section A, Page 16 of the National edition with the headline: One Texas Secessionist Who Fled Into Mountains Is Killed.
A member of the militant secessionist group known as the Republic of Texas was shot and killed today in a gun battle with the Texas authorities in the Davis Mountains here.
The man was one of two group members who fled on foot on Saturday, as the police held their fire and as the republic's leader and four other followers were surrendering. He was killed after both fugitives fired at a state police helicopter overhead and at several redbone hounds that had been tracking them. The other fugitive was not captured.
At least three of the hounds were shot by the fugitives. One was killed, two were expected to survive, and a fourth was missing late tonight, the authorities said.
In Dallas today, a 25-count Federal indictment was unsealed against the group's leader, Richard L. McLaren, on charges related to phony Republic of Texas checks.
This evening, state troopers on horseback rode into the mountains here to retrieve the body of the dead fugitive. The body was taken to Marfa, Tex., but the authorities did not say which man it was.
The two fugitives, who were armed with deer hunting rifles, an AK-47 and possibly one or more handguns, have been identified as Richard Keyes 3d, 21, of Kansas, and Mike Matson of Chicago, whose age the authorities now say is 48. Late tonight, Mike Cox, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety, described the dead man as ''middle-aged,'' indicating that it was likely to be Mr. Matson, but there was no official confirmation of that.
A version of this article appears in print on May 6, 1997, Section A, Page 16 of the National edition with the headline: One Texas Secessionist Who Fled Into Mountains Is Killed.
