Washington Pair Sought In Assault Caught On Video -- Ex-Neighbor Says One Brother Has Supremacist Past

SPOKANE - Authorities in Northeast Washington have little information about two brothers who are now on the run from charges they tried to kill police officers in Ohio.

Chevie O'Brien Kehoe, 24, and Cheyne C. Kehoe, 20, remained at large yesterday, and the FBI has joined the search for them.

Chevie Kehoe formerly lived in Colville, Stevens County, about 70 miles north of Spokane but apparently left the area around July 1993. A Washington-state driver's license issued in 1993 listed him as a Colville resident. He was described as 5-feet-10, 145 pounds, with blue eyes.

There is little information about Cheyne Kehoe's past residences. He never was issued a Washington-state driver's license, according to the Department of Licensing.

In an often-replayed videotape of a shootout with Ohio State Patrol officers last Saturday, police think Cheyne is the one who shoots at an officer, and Chevie is the driver of the getaway vehicle. The vehicle was stopped because it had expired Washington-state license plates.

A Clinton County, Ohio, grand jury on Thursday indicted Chevie Kehoe on three counts of felonious assault and three counts of attempted murder of a police officer, among other charges. The indictment accuses Cheyne Kehoe of two counts of attempted murder of a police officer and two counts of felonious assault.

They could be traveling in a white 1977 Dodge Executive motor home with green trim, possibly bearing Montana license plates, the patrol said.

One of the people thought to be traveling with the Kehoe brothers is Chevie's "wife," Karena Gumm, 23, who grew up in a farm community northeast of Colville. Police think the couple's three children, all younger than 5, are also with them.

Neighbors said Karena was "married" to Chevie Kehoe in a nontraditional ceremony at a white-supremacist community in the vicinity of Deep Lake, about 30 miles northeast of Colville. Gumm's sister, Angie Siegel, said it was not a legal marriage.

"Tell everybody to pray for my sister and the whole situation," said Seigel, who has not heard from her sister. "I just want everything to just be all right. Pray for the kids."

Karena Gumm's father, Robert Gumm, a retired sawmill worker, declined to comment because he said he does not want to say anything that might discourage his daughter from coming home.

Pat Eslick, a road-grader operator for Stevens County, said Chevie Kehoe came to his house a couple of times when Gumm was baby-sitting his children. He said his wife asked that Kehoe not return because he dressed and talked like a white-supremacist skinhead.

Eslick said he operated his grader several times around the Deep Lake community where the Kehoe brothers were living.

"The first thing I noticed was a lot of out-of-state license (plates) in the area. Nevada plates and others. It just seemed not the normal thing you would see in this area," he said.

Spokane Police have no record for either Kehoe, a spokesman said.

The FBI in Seattle declined to say whether agents were investigating the brothers' activities.

The Spokesman-Review newspaper of Spokane reported yesterday that the brothers shared interests in firearms, survivalist activities and anti-government and militia philosophies. The newspaper said Chevie had ties to skinhead and white supremacists in the Spokane area.

Information from Seattle Times staff reporter Eric Nalder is included in this report.