Killer Of California Cops Was Associated With Right-Wing Movement'

[HipKat]

Accused Killer Of California Cops Was Associated With Right-Wing 'Boogaloo Movement'

 

The FBI announced Tuesday that Steven Carrillo, the U.S. Air Force sergeant who allegedly murdered law enforcement officers in California during protests earlier this month, was associated with the right-wing Boogaloo movement, and that Carrillo chose the timing of his attacks to "take advantage of a time when this nation was mourning the killing of George Floyd."

A member of the far-right militia, Boogaloo Bois, walks next to protestors demonstrating outside ... [+]

 AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

KEY FACTS

Last week, Carrillo was charged with murder after he ambushed Santa Cruz deputies and threw pipe bombs at police on June 6, killing Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller and wounding four other officers.

On Tuesday, the FBI announced Tuesday that Carrillo has also been federally charged with the murder of federal security officer Pat Underwood, who was killed in a drive-by shooting on May 29 in Oakland.

A suspected accomplice, Robert Alvin Justus Jr., has been arrested as well.

Justus was allegedly the driver of the van used in both the Oakland Federal Building shooting and the Santa Cruz attack.

Before he was apprehended, Carrillo reportedly scrawled the word "boog" and "I became unreasonable" in blood on the hood of a car.

"Boog" is short for boogaloo, which, according to NBC News, is a far-right anti-government movement that began on the extremist site 4chan and aims to start a second American civil war.

The phrase "I became unreasonable" has seemingly become a meme in public Boogaloo communities on Facebook.

Authorities say they also found a "boogaloo" patch in the van the duo used.

KEY BACKGROUND:

During Tuesday's press conference, FBI agent Jack Bennett said Carrillo and Justus purposefully chose the protest as the locality of the killing to blend in better and to take advantage of community grief over the police killing of George Floyd. "There is no evidence that these men had any intention to join the demonstration in Oakland … They came to Oakland to kill cops," Bennett said. Carrillo has been charged with 19 felonies related to the attack, and the charges carry enhancements of "lying in wait," which means that Carrillo will be eligible for the death penalty. However, prosecutors have not said if they will pursue death. According to an ATF official, the weapon used in the fatal shootings was a homemade so-called ghost gun without a serial number. "This firearm is a machine gun with a silencer attached to its barrel," said the official. 

TANGENT:

Attorney General William Barr and other top government officials, including President Trump, have frequently blamed Antifa activists for the violence stemming from recent demonstrations in the wake of George Floyd's death. However, last week NPR published a review of court documents of 51 individuals facing federal charges related to protests, and none is alleged to have links to the Antifa movement. Among all the cases brought by the Justice Department thus far, the only extremist group mentioned in court documents is the right-wing "Boogaloo movement."

CRITICAL QUOTE: 

"Elements of The Boogaloo have evolved from a gathering of militia enthusiasts and Second Amendment advocates into a full-fledged violent extremist group, which inspires lone wolf actors and cell-like actors alike," said Joel Finkelstein, director of the Network Contagion Research Institute. "Given recent events and the inability of law enforcement to grasp and intercept this new mode of distributed terror, we think an increase in these kinds of violent attacks against police are almost inevitable."