A Libertarian North Carolina state Senate candidate was arrested Monday after an hours-long armed standoff near a private school while he live-posted threats that went viral.
Jonathan Miller, running as a Libertarian for a North Carolina state Senate seat, spent hours in the woods with a firearm Monday after refusing a police order and fleeing a welfare check, all while posting updates that alarmed the public and put a nearby private school into lockdown.
Fox News reported that Cary police took Miller into custody around 3 p.m. without incident and without firing a shot, ending a confrontation that began with Sunday-night posts suggesting he was considering suicide and escalated into an armed chase near Resurrection Lutheran School, a private K-8 campus.
Police charged him with communicating threats, resisting a public officer, going armed to the terror of the people, and possession of a firearm by a felon. Cary Police Chief Terry Sult said Miller already had a warrant for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Concerned members of the public called police after Miller posted messages Sunday night that suggested he was thinking about suicide. Officers tried a welfare check Monday morning.
Miller later told WRAL what happened next. He said he had been depressed, put what he called a suicide note on X, watched it spread far beyond his usual audience, cried through the night, then got up the next morning anyway.
"Last night I was pretty depressed and suicidal, and I sort of put a suicide note on X, and it has gone quite viral. Actually, millions of people have seen it. I usually get about 50 views on my post, but this one has gone super viral on me. 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."
He said he made coffee, took two sips, stepped outside for a cigarette, and met a police officer who knew his name and saw the holstered revolver on his hip.
"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."
That decision turned a welfare check into an hours-long armed standoff in a residential area next to a school full of children.
While officers searched the tree line, Miller kept posting. Around 9:38 a.m. he wrote that the whole police department was chasing him with guns drawn.
"The whole police department is chasing me with guns drawn. This should be fun. 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 h*** of a show."
At 10:04 a.m., answering a plea from 2024 Libertarian presidential nominee Chase Oliver to lay down his arms and surrender, Miller claimed he had “reached the tree line.” Later he told a user offering money that he had already given his money to charity and did not want or need theirs.
Around 1:46 p.m. he posted again about a negotiator call and officers closing in.
"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."
The New York Post reported that Miller is the Libertarian candidate in North Carolina’s 16th Senate District, that the standoff played out in Cary, and that he was taken into custody Monday afternoon with no shots fired after live-updating the chase on X.
Police warned pedestrians and motorists to stay out of the surrounding area. Resurrection Lutheran School went to a code yellow lockdown for part of Monday while officers searched nearby woods for an armed man who had just refused a lawful order and announced he had six shots and the high ground.
The Libertarian Party of North Carolina told the New York Post it was “aware of the situation” and thanked law enforcement for “pursuing a solution without involving violence.” That is the bare minimum after a candidate for the state Senate spent the day armed in the woods beside a K-8 school, live-posting bravado while parents and teachers locked down.
No shots were fired. Miller was arrested without further incident around 3 p.m. The charges that followed match the conduct police described: threats, resistance, going armed to the terror of the people, and a felon in possession of a firearm.
A man with a felony record, a holstered revolver, a viral suicide note, and a campaign for the North Carolina Senate chose to refuse a police order, run into the woods near a private school, and treat an armed standoff like content. Law enforcement did its job. The school locked down. The public was told to stay clear. Taxpayers and parents absorbed the risk while a candidate narrated his own flight in real time.
People who put kids under lockdown and officers in the line of fire do not get a pass because they wave a third-party banner. North Carolina voters deserve candidates who follow the law, not candidates who flee into the tree line with six shots and a phone.
