Mohawk man charged after standoff at ex-GM site

MASSENA, N.Y. (AP) – A member of the Mohawk Indian tribe has been charged after a standoff with state police at a former General Motors manufacturing site in northern New York.

Local media report that 56-year-old Larry Thompson of the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation drove a backhoe through a fence at the old GM plant site in Massena Thursday morning and started digging into a capped landfill containing hazardous waste.

Authorities say Thompson refused to get out of the excavator when state troopers arrived, but eventually surrendered to police.

Thompson, who owns property adjacent to the GM site, reportedly was frustrated with cleanup efforts at the landfill.

The charges against him include reckless endangerment, criminal trespass and resisting arrest. He was being held in jail on $100,000 bail. It wasn't known if he had a lawyer.