Man wanted by FBI arrested on UNCW campus

WILMINGTON — We’re learning more about a man who was wanted by the FBI and arrested on UNCW’s campus Tuesday. The suspect allegedly has connections with domestic terrorists.

According to reports Ronald Cole has connections with Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, and the Waco massacre in the early 1990s.

Ronald Cole, 38, was arrested Tuesday at UNCW as he dropped his wife off at graduate school. The US Attorney’s Office indicted Cole in November for fraud and reproducing government identification documents.

According to Cole’s neighbors undercover agents have been watching Cole’s house for the past four months, and some neighbors who didn’t want to be identified say they’ve been weary of Cole ever since he moved to Brookview Road in Wilmington six months ago.

One neighbor said, “When he first moved here he looked suspicious. Just the way he was, just the way he acted, I said to my mom, there’s something wrong with that man.”

We checked into Cole’s past and found he was one of the branch Davidians who survived the Waco massacre in 1993.

In 1996 Cole handed out fliers outside of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh’s trial — asking for McVeigh to be treated fairly.

A year later Cole was arrested in Aurora, Colorado, where FBI agents found illegal guns and explosives in his home.

Cole was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison for his arrest in 1997. He’s now in custody of US marshals. They declined request for an interview with Cole.