‘Sovereign citizen’ shot dead by police

Several officers fired into the car with Mr Allan’s family describing his death as a “brutal murder”.

Police have admitted it’s not clear from bodycam footage if Mr Allan was reaching for a gun when he was shot.

During an exchange where he was repeatedly asked to and refused to exit the vehicle Chase Allan, 25, told police they had no “jurisdiction” over him and used other known sovereign citizen phrases.

While it hasn’t been explicitly stated that Mr Allan was a sovereign citizen, it has emerged his mother is in a legal dispute with the local police department which also followed a traffic stop where she also used sovereign citizen tropes.

Mr Allan himself had to be forcibly ejected from court a number of times in recent months for interfering with cases during which he used phrases common in sovereign citizen circles.

Sovereign citizens, also known as “cookers” in Australia, typically believe they are exempt from the law and do not have to pay taxes, fines or carry driver’s licences.

Traffic stop turns violent

Mr Allan was pulled over in Farmington, a suburb of Salt Lake City, on March 1 after a local police officer said he had an “illegitimate” license plate.

It featured no numbers but did have some US symbols and a series of vertical red stripes where the numbers would normally have been.

A flag often used by sovereign citizens in the US features a variation of the American flag with the stripes going vertically rather than horizontally.

Text on the plate said “Utah, American state citizen” and “Notice, Private Automobile Not for Hire”. In Australia some fake licence plates used by sovereign citizens have also stated vehicles are “private”.

Bodycam footage from police captured the entire encounter.

An officer approached the vehicle and asked Mr Allan, who had a gun holster in the car, about his license plate and to see his ID.

‘I don’t answer questions’

“I don’t need registration and I don’t answer questions,” Mr Allan, a former college soccer player, answered.

The officer then called for backup, and warned Mr Allan, “The direction this encounter goes is 100 per cent in your hands”.

Mr Allan then told the police officer a series of spurious legal points including that he had no “jurisdiction” over him, he was not in a “contract,” and that he was “travelling”.

That motorists are “travelling” rather than driving is terminology that has been used by sovereign citizens in Australia too.

Sovereign citizens assert their right to “travel” in “private” vehicles and by telling police this they believe it excuses them from traffic laws.

Mr Allan refused to hand over a driving license but did produce a passport before saying: “That is not me – that is a piece of plastic paper”.

Mr Allan continued to refuse to leave the car, the footage showed.

Another officer threatened to break the window of the car to drag him out.

The footage showed Mr Allan holding a phone in his right hand before switching it to his left hand, which freed up the hand closer to his holster moments before cops fired, the New York Post reported.

An officer opened the driver’s door and Mr Allan made a move, though it’s uncertain whether it was to unbuckle his seatbelt or to go for the holster.

An officer then yelled “Gun!” as the five officers moved around the vehicle and started shooting from several direction before stopping moments later. Motionless, Mr Allan was then pulled out of the car and handcuffed.

Before shots were fired by police, no gun was visible in the holster or anywhere else in the footage.

Footage of gun not clear

Farmington Police Chief Eric Johnsen said officers only fired after Mr Allan reached down to what the cops believed could be a holster or a gun.

But he acknowledged the footage is not clear leading up to the shooting because the bodycams’ view of Mr Allan’s hip holster is blocked by the car door and an officer leaning in to yank him out just as another cop warned of a gun.

The footage and photos showed a handgun on the floor of the car as well as an empty holster on Mr Allan’s hip.

Mr Allan was taken to the hospital and later pronounced dead. Police have not alleged Mr Allan fired a gun during the confrontation.

In a statement to local TV station Fox 13, Mr Allan’s family said his death was a “brutal murder” which was “devastating and tragic,” and claimed they were being “stonewalled” by police.

His mother Diane Allan said her son was “likely terrified for his safety”.

The statement said he was a “gracious, loving soul,” and “a patriot doing what he could to defend the people’s freedom and liberty in his community”.

Mother also refused traffic stop

The Salt Lake City Tribune newspaper reported that Mr Allan was physically removed from a court last year where he was attempting to intervene in a court case involving his mother following a traffic stop.

“Are you committing slavery and involuntary servitude?” he asked the judge, which is also sovereign citizen terminology.

His mother had been pulled over by police in April 2022 and similarly refused to hand over ID. It’s alleged her car registration had expired and she was not insured.

In that instance, police issued Ms Allan with a demand to appear in court, passing it through the window, and let her leave the scene.

The newspaper reported that Ms Allan stormed out of her trial claiming the court “had no jurisdiction” over her.

On another occasion, Mr Allan turned up a court to support another woman and when asked to leave the court told police they “had no authority over him”.

Ms Allan’s sister Courtney Vandegrift wrote to news website Heavy after it referred to her mother as a sovereign citizen.

The correct term, she said, was “American State National”.

“The term sovereign citizen has been used by certain entities to weaponise government and law enforcement against the people,” Ms Vandegrift wrote.

She also said her mother’s name was “copyrighted”.

Christine Sarteschi, who is an academic at Pennsylvania’s Chatham University, told website Vice it was splitting hairs.

“Aside from a bit of difference in nomenclature, they are the same”.

Police chief Eric Johnsen said an investigation as taking place into Mr Allan’s death.

The five officers, which made up one fifth of the local police force, were put on administrative leave.