New Orleans, La. -
Several of the suspects arrested in the shootings of St. John Parish deputies were known to law enforcement in Louisiana and the FBI.
From Desoto Parish to Nebraska, regrets are being offered after they slipped from law enforcement's grasp.
In Gage County, Nebraska, Kyle Joekel, a suspect in the killings, is listed as most wanted.
In Desoto Parish, Lieutenant Robert Davidson is angry.
"These people was anti-law enforcement, anti-government. I don't know what happened at the worksite. They always got fired of dismissed," said Davidson.
Three months before suspects Kyle Joe, Terry Smith, and son Brian Smith were arrested for their alleged involvement in the shooting, they were spotted in a trailer park in Mansfield, Louisiana toting automatic weapons.
"We got calls about them getting out of their cars with assault weapons and we got pictures off Facebook some of them holding AK 47's and pistols.
Desoto Parish Sheriff's Lieutenant Robert Davidson said his office contacted the FBI and set up surveillance.
"Absolutely we knew they were dangerous. We were going to pull them over on the side of the road. We didn't want this to go down in a trailer park, there's too many mobile homes there, he said"
Also in Mansfield, suspect Terry Smith told authorities he was renting a building to sell weapons.
"He came down to the sheriff's office and applied on June 10th. He said he had a building in downtown Mansfield, but never came back," Davidson said.
But after surveillance was set up, the suspects skipped town undetected; similar to what they did in Nebraska last year where Sheriff Gus Gustafson said Joekel was stopped in a bar for suspected drug activity after making anti-government statements.
The St. John suspects were known to the FBI, as well as law enforcement in Louisiana, Kansas, Tennessee, and Nebraska.
Jim Bernazani, a former FBI Agent in Charge, says it might be time for federal agencies to ramp up.
It's unclear if more information would have made a difference in Thursday's ambush. Jim Bernazzani says it's too early to say, but some of the background on the suspects may indicate they were part of some sort of right wing terror organization.
