Matt Shea claimed U-Haul in CdA was filled with Antifa. But among those arrested was man who attended Shea’s church
Of the 31 men police say are members of a white supremacist group arrested in Coeur d’Alene and accused of conspiring to riot, several live in Washington and Idaho.
Among them are two brothers from Spokane , Mishael and Josiah Buster.
Mishael J. Buster has ties to former Washington legislator Matt Shea, who was expelled from the House Republican caucus after an investigation found he engaged in domestic terrorism during the armed takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge in 2016.
The 22-year-old Buster can be seen making jokes in a Dec. 19, 2021, live stream of an On Fire Ministries church service. Ahead of a message delivered by Shea, Mishael Buster and his father Matt Buster take the stage to read announcements.
Shea also is known for authoring a document titled “Biblical Basis for War.”
Shea, who led an alternative “prayer walk” in Coeur d’Alene during the Pride in the Park event Saturday, went live on the Redoubt News Facebook page Saturday and spread misinformation to his followers of the conservative news outlet that it was antifa in the U-Haul attempting to ambush him and his followers.
“This attempted ambush from antifa was thwarted,” Shea said. The bogus claims have failed to gain traction in the wake of the mass arrest and public statements by Couer d’Alene police.
Both Mishael Buster and his older brother Josiah Daniel Buster, 24, were among those arrested Saturday and later released from the Kootenai County Jail after each posted a $300 bail.
In records released by Kootenai County law enforcement, Mishael Buster lives at a home owned by his parents just north of Spokane’s Hillyard neighborhood. His brother, Josiah Buster, 24, is listed as living in Texas but remains registered to vote in Spokane.
On Monday afternoon Josiah Buster answered the door at his parents’ home and declined to answer a Spokesman-Review reporter’s questions concerning his arrest or role in Saturday’s foiled incident.
Josiah Buster shares his new residence in Watauga, Texas, with another one of the men arrested Saturday, Connor Patrick Moran, 23, according to records provided by law enforcement.
Both Mishael and Josiah Buster graduated from Rogers High school in 2017 and 2016 respectively. Neither has any criminal history in Spokane County.
Also arrested from Washington was Colton M. Brown, a 23-year-old from Ravensdale, a small town southeast of Seattle; James J. Johnson, a 36-year-old from Concrete; Justin M. O’Leary, 27, of Des Moines; and Spencer T. Simpson, 20, of Ellensburg.
The two men from Idaho who were arrested are Winston W. Durham, a 21-year-old from Genesee, and Richard J. Jessop, 21, of Idaho Falls.
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story incorrectly listed the member of the Patriot Front who is from Ellensburg. Spencer T. Simpson, 20, was listed as living in Ellensburg by Kootenai County law enforcement.