Mission Details
Target: "Taco" (Last Name withheld)
Theater: Spavinaw, OK
Operation: QUICK DRAW
Description: Pulled a loaded firearm on a journalist/citizen during a public City Council meeting.
Disposition: TARGET ACQUIRED — Subject of demand for felony charges; Investigation by Mayes County Sheriff.
He had been to hundreds of city council meetings. Across Oklahoma, across the country, from small rural townships to sprawling municipal chambers, our correspondent had seen it all. He knew the rhythms, the personalities, the predictable theater of local government. So when the mayor of Spavinaw personally invited him to attend their public meeting, promising openness and transparency, he went alone. No backup cameraman. No security. Just a journalist, a camera, and the reasonable expectation that a public meeting would remain civil.
He was wrong. What unfolded that evening inside the Spavinaw, Oklahoma city council chambers was not a routine meeting. It was, in his own words, a showdown at the Spavinaw corral, and it ended with a loaded firearm being drawn by a sitting city council member, known publicly by the nickname "Taco," and pointed in the direction of a journalist doing nothing more than filming public officials on public property.
A Trap Disguised as an Invitation
The moment our correspondent walked through the door, something felt wrong. The room had the electric tension of a group that had been waiting, that had planned. The mayor launched immediately into a scripted speech about how the meeting would be conducted, laying out rules that were clearly tailored to control one specific person in the audience. Residents could only speak if recognized by a board member. Any disruption would result in removal. The gavel, she made clear, was the law in that room.
The meeting itself proceeded in the way these kinds of meetings do when officials have already decided everything in advance. Agenda items were dispatched quickly, voices kept low, votes perfunctory. There was no real deliberation. There was only the performance of governance, staged for the public record while the real decisions had clearly been made elsewhere, behind closed doors, before anyone arrived.
Then came the executive session. The council voted to move into closed-door proceedings under two agenda items: consideration of litigation to prevent what they described as defamation and harassment of town officials, and enforcement of a declaratory judgment in open records litigation. Both items pointed directly at citizens who had dared to ask their government for public documents.
The Citizens Who Were Sued for Asking Questions
While the council conducted its secret session, the public was physically expelled from the building and put out onto the street. Outside, standing on the public sidewalk, our correspondent began to piece together the full picture of what had been happening in Spavinaw long before he arrived.
He met Cindy, a Spavinaw resident dressed in pink, who told a story that would be difficult to believe if it were not documented in court records. Cindy had filed two routine open records requests with the town. She had not picketed. She had not disrupted meetings. She had filled out paperwork and asked her government for information it is legally required to provide. For that, she was sued. The city of Spavinaw, led by Mayor Amanda Miller and the full board, had filed litigation against her and three other citizens, including Leslie Harden, Mike Bradford, and Kim Bunch, claiming that their requests were overwhelming city staff and impeding government operations.
The city ultimately could not produce all of the requested records. Some of the documents, Cindy said quietly, simply were not there anymore. Whether they were destroyed, lost, or never kept as required by law remains an open question. What is not in question is that Cindy and her neighbors never recovered their legal fees. They had committed no crime. They had exercised a fundamental right. And they were dragged into court for it by the very officials who were supposed to serve them.
The Moment Everything Escalated
Back inside the meeting, after the executive session ended, the council returned to open session to act on what had been discussed behind closed doors. At one point, the mayor mentioned a name our correspondent could not hear clearly. He leaned back quietly to ask the person seated behind him to repeat it. A simple, human thing to do. The mayor exploded, banging her gavel and demanding silence, accusing him of disruption. He calmly pointed out that the gavel did not grant unlimited authority, that asking a quiet question of a neighbor in a public meeting was not a civil offense. The tension in the room climbed several degrees.
It was during this escalating atmosphere, when the meeting had already devolved into a confrontation between a journalist exercising his rights and officials determined to suppress any challenge to their authority, that Taco made his move. The council member reached for a loaded firearm and produced it in full view of everyone present inside the public chambers. Multiple witnesses saw it. The camera captured it. There is no ambiguity about what happened or who did it.
"I Can Do Whatever I Want"
When our correspondent confronted Taco directly about drawing the weapon, the council member's response carried the casual entitlement of a man who had never been told no by anyone in his community. According to our correspondent's account of the exchange, Taco's position was simple: he believed he could do whatever he wanted. That sentence, spoken by an elected official who had just brandished a loaded gun at a journalist in a public building, tells you everything you need to know about the culture that has been allowed to take root in Spavinaw.
This is not the wild west, our correspondent noted. This is not behavior that any civilized government institution can permit to stand without consequence. An elected representative, entrusted with public power and public funds, drew a firearm inside a civic meeting to intimidate a member of the press. That is not a policy dispute. That is not a disagreement about meeting decorum. Under Oklahoma law, that is a felony.
The Investigation and the Demand for Charges
Guerrilla News correspondents have formally demanded that felony charges be filed against Taco. The matter has been referred to the Mayes County Sheriff's Office, which has opened an investigation into the incident. As of the time of publication, no criminal charges have been filed. The Mayes County District Attorney's Office has the authority and the obligation to act on documented evidence of a crime committed in public, in front of witnesses, on camera.
The pattern in Spavinaw is not difficult to read. A city government that sues its own citizens for requesting public records, that holds secret sessions to plan litigation against residents, that expels the public from its own building during a public meeting, and that now has a council member who drew a gun on a journalist inside chambers, this is not a government that has lost its way. This is a government that decided long ago it did not answer to the people it serves.
Cindy, Leslie, Mike, and Kim asked for records. They were taken to court. The reporter who came to tell their story had a gun pulled on him. The officials who did these things have, so far, faced no legal consequence. That is the story of Spavinaw, Oklahoma. And it is not over.
What You Can Do Right Now
If you believe that pointing a loaded firearm at a journalist during a public meeting should result in criminal charges, contact the Mayes County District Attorney's Office directly. Be firm. Be respectful. Be persistent. The only thing standing between accountability and impunity in Spavinaw right now is public pressure and the willingness of investigators to treat elected officials the same way they would treat anyone else who committed a felony in a room full of witnesses. Watch the full footage below and share this story. Sunlight is the only disinfectant that works on governments like this one.
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