A quartet of “Boogaloo Bois” associated with a right-wing militia group called “1st California Grizzly Scouts” were indicted by the Department of Justice on Friday for conspiring to destroy evidence in the murder/attempted murder investigation of two Federal Protective Service Officers in Oakland, California last Summer...
Reuters
The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in San Francisco, alleged that the four conspired to destroy communications and other records related to the murder and attempted murder of two federal security officers in Oakland, the department said in a statement.
The accused men are Jessie Rush, 29, of Turlock, California, Robert Blancas, 33, a transient in the San Francisco Bay area, Simon Ybarra, 23, of Los Gatos, California, and Kenny Miksch, 21, of San Lorenzo, California.
All are members of the militia groups 1st Detachment and 1st California Grizzly Scouts, the DOJ said.
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All remained in federal custody on Friday pending further court proceedings, the DOJ said.
Yet another group of morons learns that nothing ever disappears from the internet...
NPR
The shootings happened amid protests against police brutality in the Bay Area following the death of George Floyd.
Steven Carillo, another person with alleged ties to boogaloo, has already been charged with murder and attempted murder in connection to those two incidents. Authorities said Carrillo allegedly opened fire in front of a federal building in Oakland, killing Underwood and injuring another officer, the Associated Press reported. In the Santa Cruz town of Ben Lemond on June 6, authorities said Carrillo attacked sheriff's deputies who'd been responding to a report of a van containing explosive materials and other weapons, killing Gutzwiller and wounding several other law enforcement officials.
Last April, prosecutors said in the news release, the four indicted alleged boogaloo members connected in a Facebook group bearing the signposts of the anti-government movement.
They’re facing 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine each...
KPIX
The four were charged with conspiring to obstruct justice by destroying communications and other records related to the May 29, 2020 shooting death of Federal Protective Service officer David Patrick Underwood at the Oakland federal building. The indictment also charges Rush with an additional count of obstruction of official proceedings and Blancas with an additional count of destruction of records in official proceedings.
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The complaint alleges that on the day of Gutzwiller’s killing, a member of the Grizzly Scouts exchanged messages on the WhatsApp group with other Grizzly Scouts, in which that member allegedly told the group that he was preparing to engage in a shoot-out with law enforcement. The member allegedly asked the other Grizzly Scouts to come to his aid.
The indictment alleges Rush immediately instructed the Grizzly Scout member to delete evidence on his phone. Less than an hour after the shooting in Ben Lomond, Blancas also allegedly deleted files related to the Grizzly Scouts from a Dropbox account.
Within hours of the shooting, members of the Grizzly Scouts including Rush, Blancas, Ybarra, and Miksch allegedly began to reconnect on an alternative communications application, and the four defendants each deleted records of the WhatsApp group communications from their phones, including previous discussions about targeting law enforcement, the complaint alleged.
I’m sick of the repeated threats from gun-toting losers spouting the same brain-dead ideology that’s been defeated in courtrooms and on battlefields again and again… and AGAIN. I’m past done with these “neo-Confederates” who think they have exclusive rights to the heritage of this nation’s founding and repeatedly misconstrue the Constitution’s meaning and intent.