Massachusetts police arrest 11 armed men after hours-long roadside standoff

• The men wouldn't comply with officers to hand over the firearms, so parts of the highway were closed and a shelter-in-place order was issued for Wakefield and nearby Reading.

The big picture: The incident began about 1:30 a.m. when a state trooper stopped to check two vehicles parked in the emergency breakdown lane of the highway in Wakefield, some 15 miles north of Boston, and saw men in military-style gear with long guns and pistols. They said they were traveling from Rhode Island to Maine for training.

• "You can imagine 11 armed individuals standing with long guns slung on an interstate highway at 2 in the morning certainly raises concerns and is not consistent with the firearms laws that we have in Massachusetts," Mason said.
• Nine of the suspects surrendered about 10:15 a.m. after police used "a combination of negotiation and tactical measures," including armored vehicles, Mason said. Police later took two more men into custody.

"Their self-professed leader wanted very much known their ideology is not anti-government. Our investigation will provide us more insight into what their motivation, what their ideology is."

What to watch: Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said the suspects were due to appear in court in Woburn on Tuesday.