MISSOULA, Montana --
Fugitive and former Montana militia leader David Burgert is one of a new breed of anti-U.S. government activists who display particular hatred of law enforcement, police and militia experts say.
Burgert apparently carefully planned for a gunfight with Missoula County sheriff's deputies on Sunday, then escaped into the heavily forested mountains of western Montana. The 47-year-old parolee remained on the run Thursday.
Burgert, Sheriff Carl Ibsen said in a statement, "harbors great animosity for law enforcement and government in general."
Police believe Burgert is hiding somewhere in the mountains near the Montana-Idaho border, an area of towering peaks, low brush and thick pine forests. In recent decades, the remote region has proven fertile ground for extremist groups including the Militia of Montana, the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations and many others.
Burgert previously led an anti-government militia in northwestern Montana known as Project 7 that was broken up by authorities last decade. He spent eight years in federal prison on weapons charges before his release in March 2010.
A former Marine who has been diagnosed as mentally ill, Burgert is the latest in a growing number of anti-government activists who have engaged in shootouts with law officers around the country, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which studies extremist groups.
"Basically, law enforcement, especially the feds, are seen as agents of an evil conspiracy run by the government,'" said Mark Potok of the Montgomery, Alabama-based SPLC.
Such extremists are contemptuous of traffic laws and have engaged in shootouts with law officers who have pulled them over, Potok said. In a similar incident, two police officers in West Memphis, Arkansas, were shot to death by two men with anti-government ties in May 2010, Potok said.
Burgert has a long history of conflict with police, including Sunday's incident in which he led sheriff's deputies on a low-speed chase and then allegedly fired a handgun at them before disappearing into the woods.
Authorities believe Burgert planned the shootout, and is relying on previously stashed caches of food, weapons and even a vehicle to elude capture.
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Brown reported from Billings, Mont.
