GoFundMe Michael Tate Reed. (GoFundMe)
Michael Tate Reed is accused of driving over a Ten Commandments monument at the State Capitol in Arkansas, three years after he was accused of a similar act in Oklahoma.
Reed, 32, allegedly drove “through the statue…while filming on his cell phone.”
The incident occurred around 4:47 a.m. on June 28 as Reed allegedly streamed it on Facebook Live video while shouting “freedom.” He even created a hashtag he hoped would take off as a result of the action and made a GoFundMe site hoping to raise funds to replace his car. He allegedly called himself “a terrorist” on Facebook and made threats to presidents of both political parties, including Donald Trump and Barack Obama. He called Prince Charles the anti-Christ, George Bush Sr. a satanist, and the Pope a false prophet in a series of rambling Facebook posts.
In 2014, Michael Reed made headlines after he was accused of demolishing and urinating on the Ten Commandments monument in Oklahoma. “im a born again Christian whos a pentacostal Jesus Freak,” Reed wrote on Facebook.
Michael Reed, 32, also allegedly drove into another 10 Commandments statue in Oklahoma back in 2014. Said Satan told him to do it.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Reed Streamed the Arkansas Incident on Facebook Live & Was Arrested at the Scene
Police mugshotMichael Reed.
Reed’s page streamed this video to Facebook Live right around the time of the June 28 incident and called it, “Freedom.” You can clearly see the Capitol building in the background as he shouts, “Oh my goodness, Freedom!”:
The six-foot monument had just been installed the day before.
According to Arkansas Online, “Chris Powell, a spokesman with the Secretary of State’s Office, said he was called early (Wednesday) and told a man drove a vehicle through the monument.” The Arkanses newspaper reported that an officer witnessed the incident and allegedly saw Reed “start from a stopped position and ram the Ten Commandments monument.” The monument ended up as “hunks of granite,” Arkansas Online reported.
Reed was taken to the hospital and then jail, where he “faces charges of defacing objects of public respect, trespassing on Capitol grounds and first-degree criminal mischief,” reported the newspaper.
Reed also streamed this video around the same time:
Reed said on Facebook that he was back at it with the “white plans,” without explaining what he meant by that comment. He wrote on June 26: “Since i have overcome I totally get to rule over all nations and I’ll be given the bright morning star…. Emperor Michael Reed sounds good lol…”
“This is Michael Reed, and I’m a firm believer that salvation is that we not only have faith in Jesus Christ but that we obey the commands of God…” he says in the above video, which was posted right around the time the monument was run over.
“But one thing I do not support is the violation of our Constitutional right to have the freedom that’s guarantees us separation of church and state because no one religion should the government represent. So … back at it again… so if you’re in support of this, you can talk about it using the hashtag checkmate, and also I’m using my own car that I paid for.”
BREAKING: The Ten Commandments monument installed at the Arkansas Capitol has been toppled, shattered. What we know: t.co/XQZc92Dod0
He said the car was paid for by a settlement and that he was going to start a GoFundMe campaign to get a new vehicle (which he then did, although it’s no longer active).
2. Reed Was Accused of Urinating on the Demolished Oklahoma Monument & Ranting About Barack Obama
Police mugshotMichael Tate Reed’s 2014 mugshot.
In 2014, Reed was arrested by the Secret Service and accused of running over a six-foot-tall granite monument to the Ten Commandments at the Oklahoma State Capitol.
The Secret Service said then that the agency had arrested Reed “after he went to the Federal Court building, admitted to crashing his car into the statue and then made threatening statements against President Barack Obama,” according to KTUL.
“The suspect said Satan told him to do it, Secret Service officials said. He also reportedly said he would kill President Obama and spit on a photo of Obama. The suspect also allegedly admitted that he urinated on the Ten Commandments monument before running it over,” reported KOCO-TV.
He was accused of driving across the Capitol lawn before ramming into the monument on the steps of the statehouse.
Reed is also accused of posting recent social media messages with ominous statements toward U.S. presidents, including one that threatens both Presidents Bush and President Donald Trump.
His page contains other apparent threats to both Presidents Bush.
His Facebook profile photo showed him with a Ten Commandments’ plaque. According to Tulsa World, the Oklahoma incident was one of a series of disturbing acts. Reed also allegedly “set money on fire and walked into a federal building to spit on pictures,” reported Tulsa World.
3. Reed Once Claimed He Sees Michael Jackson’s Spirit in Meat & Was Inspired by Dracula Movies
Michael Reed.
After his arrest in Oklahoma, Reed wrote a disturbing letter to a newspaper in that state describing his mental illness.
In the letter to the Tulsa World, Reed wrote “that his psychotic breaks led to getting inspiration from a Dracula movie, thinking Michael Jackson’s spirit was in meat, believing he was the incarnation of an occult leader and attempting to contact Lucifer’s high priestess he called Gwyneth Paltrow.”
He was eventually released in the Oklahoma case “under an agreement with Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater for continued treatment, therapy and family support. He is diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder,” reported Tulsa World.
On YouTube, he shared videos of himself preaching in a hospital.
He also posted this odd video.
A lengthy profile piece in NewsOK described Reed’s bouts with mental illness. The story reported that Reed twice put all of his belongings outside in his yard for anyone to take.
“Here we’re thrust into the spotlight because of that monument, and it has put a spotlight on mental health, and it really needs to be there — on mental health — because that’s what this is about,” Reed’s mother Crystal Tucker told the newspaper at the time, describing her son’s mind as “broken.”
4. Reed Is Accused of Making Disturbing Posts on Social Media & Once Attended a Bible College
Michael Tate Reed. (Facebook)
The Facebook posts on the page alleged to be Reed’s make recent disturbing statements. A June 26 post on his Facebook page reads, “I am a TERRORIST Who shall destroy many with the Fire of The Holy One of Isreal Yashua the Christ who alone is God YA Peace to Isreal forever for her King shall come and she shall be saved. And you oh fierce King of understand dark sentences shall be destroyed without hands yes you Donald Trump #CHECKMATE I’m not against service men and women I Thank them all for what they do. I’m against this whore nation that now lives in abominations before God.”
He made a series of strange posts in recent days. On June 26, he posted a photo of an American flag burning with the comment, “I support Our troops just not this country that is Mystery Bablon thay will fall in the time span of one hour. May our God Jesus Christ have mercy on his people.”
Reed’s mental health struggles date to at least 2013.
According to Tulsa World, Reed dated his struggles with mental illness to dreams he had while attending Victory Bible College in Oklahoma. In the dream, he thought Satan would attack him, the newspaper reported.
“He was convinced he was the reincarnation of British occult leader Aleister Crowley,” Tulsa World reported.
5. Mike Huckabee Labeled Reed an ‘Idiot’ Who Isn’t Moses
Michael Reed.
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee weighed in on Twitter.
“Some idiot in my home state broke all 10 commandments at the same time. He wasn’t Moses and it wasn’t Mt. Sinai,” he wrote.
According to Arkansas Online, Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Bigelow, who sponsored the law to put the monument up in the first place, derided its destruction as “an act of violence.”
“That’s the same hatred, that’s the same motivation that motives somebody to put on a mask and take a bat and go to a college campus and attack somebody who is standing there exercising their free speech rights,” he said, according to the newspaper, also bringing up the shooting at a congressional baseball practice in Virginia.