Ron Wilkins & Steven Porter

rwilkins@jconline.com

Jerad and Amanda Miller, the husband-and-wife duo from Lafayette who gunned down two Las Vegas police officers and a civilian Sunday before killing themselves, claimed they were "freedom fighters" hoping to spark an anti-government "revolution."

In their twisted, conspiratorial worldview, they cast themselves as gun-loving heroes battling the "oppression" and "tyranny" they insisted the federal government had imposed upon the nation.

But mostly, it appears from Jerad Miller's rants on Facebook and YouTube, he was angry at the government because of his repeated arrests and convictions for using drugs.

Last summer, as Miller was confined on house arrest for a marijuana-related conviction inside his rental apartment in the 1200 block of Weaver Street in Lafayette, he posted a YouTube video railing against the government and portraying himself as a political protester.

He had a trail of marijuana arrests and convictions in Tippecanoe County stretching back to 2007.

"Protesters get arrested every day in America," he said, showing his ankle monitoring bracelet to the camera. "People are getting arrested every stinking day for marijuana, for pills, just because they're self-medicating themselves. ... They're putting people on house arrest.

"You have to pay for the privilege of being a prisoner in your own home ... I have to pay $9 a day for this."

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Days later, the landlord evicted Jerad Miller, 31, and Amanda, 22, from that apartment for nonpayment of rent. With nowhere else to go, Jerad Miller petitioned the court on July 22 to put him in jail to serve the remainder of his sentence.

"Jerad was nothing but a drug-addict loser," said Monica May, who along with her husband, Nick, had rented the apartment to the Millers for a year and a half. "Amanda was a good girl, but I can see that happening. ... He had her so brainwashed, it was pathetic."

Connie Kennedy, a neighbor who lived across the street from the Millers on Weaver Street, said the first time she met Jerad Miller, he rambled on about rampant pollution and America as a whole turning communist.

"He was just weird, really weird," she said.

Early in January, the Millers left Lafayette and headed for Las Vegas.

Leslie Schneidt, 23, a friend of Amanda Miller's since the two attended Lafayette Jefferson High School, said she recalled hearing Jerad Miller talking about moving somewhere where they could "fit in" with others who shared like-minded views on government and the coming "revolution."

"They wanted to be down south because they knew if it came down to a revolution, they would be safe there — because more people like them would be standing up," said Schneidt.

The Las Vegas Sun reported that residents at an apartment complex where it appeared the two lived in Las Vegas said they had a reputation for spouting racist, anti-government views, bragging about their gun collection and boasting that they'd spent time at Cliven Bundy's Nevada ranch during a recent standoff there between armed militia members and federal government agents. The duo had professed strong support for Bundy, who had been cited for grazing his cattle on public land without a permit.

The couple also told people they planned to commit a mass shooting, Brandon Moore, a resident of the complex, told the newspaper.

"They were handing out white-power propaganda and were talking about doing the next Columbine," Moore said.

The Millers staged their lunchtime attack Sunday, walking into a CiCi's restaurant in Las Vegas and shouting, "This is a revolution," said Las Vegas Sheriff Doug Gillespie. They killed Las Vegas police officers Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor Soldo, 31, and fled to a nearby Wal-Mart, where they killed a bystander, Joseph Robert Wilcox, 31, of Las Vegas. Then the couple turned their weapons on themselves.

In the days leading up to the attack, Jerad Miller foreshadowed his intentions on his Facebook page.

"The dawn of a new day. May all of our coming sacrifices be worth it," Miller wrote in a Facebook post on June 7, a day before the killings.

"We can hope for peace. We must, however, prepare for war," Miller posted on June 2. "We face an enemy that is not only well funded, but who believe they fight for freedom and justice. ... To stop this oppression, I fear, can only be accomplished with bloodshed."

Amanda Miller grew up in a working-class neighborhood on Lafayette's north side and worked for several years at the Lafayette Hobby Lobby store. She posted endless photos and videos of her pet cats on her social media pages.

But from her Facebook posts, it's clear that she shared her husband's angry, conspiratorial worldview.

"To the people in the world," she wrote in a Facebook post on May 23, 2011, "your lucky i can't kill you now but remember one day one day i will get you because one day all hell will break lose and i'll be standing in the middle of it with a shot gun in one hand and a pistol in the other."

A year later, on April 12, 2012, she posted: "Everyday I realize how more and more people are asleep and only a few of us are awake. The government is trying to take away our rights and people are letting them. Only the few of us are willing to fight back. They are to busy about whats going on with celebrities and it scares me. You people need to wake up and see what the government people are doing to us. I'm proud to be awake to see whats really going on."

Those extremist views caused Amanda to become estranged from her family, her former landlords recalled. Nick May said he called her parents before evicting the couple last summer and was told that her family hadn't spoken with Amanda since Christmas 2012.

The occupants inside her parent's Lafayette home declined to be interviewed Monday.

Contributing: City Editor Dave Smith/dsmith@jconline.com