DUBLIN – The day after he was convicted by Vice President Mike Pence at the Republican National Convention, the ex-Air Force Sergeant associated with the extremist anti-government Boogaloo movement appeared in court Thursday and pleaded not guilty. murder of a sergeant of the Sheriff of Santa Cruz.
Steven Carrillo, 32, appeared in Dublin on Thursday afternoon before a Santa Cruz County judge, wearing a large red jumpsuit indicating his placement in the Santa Rita prison. His face was covered by a mask written on it with a marker: “We the people,” was above, and “BLM”, in large letters in the middle. At the bottom was written: “Portland, Kenosha, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.”
Carrillo is charged with charges in federal and state court of first abducting Federal Protective Services officer Dave Patrick Underwood in Oakland, and then, a week later, murdering Santa Cruz Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller during an ambush in Ben Lomond. Underwood’s partner was injured, as were two other police officers in the attack that killed Gutzwiller.
Without naming Carrillo, Pence referred to the assassination of Underwood in his speech at Wednesday night’s convention that formally accepted the nomination for vice president in the 2020 election. Pence acknowledged Underwood’s sister, Angela, who was in the public eye, and said Underwood was “shot and killed in the riots in Oakland, California.”
“Angela, we say to you: We mourn with your family. “America will never forget or fail, Officer Dave Patrick Underwood,” Pence said Wednesday night. “The American people know that we do not have to choose between supporting law enforcement and standing with our African-American neighbors to improve the quality of their lives, education, jobs and security.”
The FBI has repeatedly said that Carrillo and his co-suspect, Robert Justus, traveled to Oakland to assassinate aldermen, but were not part of a protest that night that followed in the footsteps of the murder of George Floyd. Underwood’s alleged killers chose the night of May 29 for the attack because they knew local police would be distracted by the protests, according to federal authorities.
Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan issued a statement Thursday, declaring Pence’s “lies about a white supremacist murder in Oakland” She said Pence was wrongly trying to link the murder to the Black Lives Matter movement, and sought to discredit the important movement of social justice. The move, Kaplan said, had nothing to do with the murder.
“There was a white supremacist assassination in Oakland – and it’s disgusting and wrong for anyone, especially the Vice President, to try to blame the Black Lives Matter movement. Mr Underwood’s tragic assassination was not part of it. any demonstration, but in the act of a violent, armed white supremacist, ‘said Kaplan.
The Boogaloo movement was launched online, based on a mother who shed light on a second civil war that supporters believe is on the horizon. It is based on a reference to the movie “Breakin ‘2: Electric Boogaloo”, which implies that a sequel to the Civil War is imminent.
According to extremist experts who have studied the movement, it is composed of two freely organized ideologies – one that is decidedly white supremacist, and another that has adapted to other groups that are critical of police, including the Black Lives Matter movement.
The ‘non-racists’ consider Black Lives Matter and anti-fascist protests as, really good anti-government energy, but directed in the wrong way, because Black Lives Matter goes for policy changes and things that a Boogaloo Boy does not “The Boogaloo movement is radically anti-authoritarian,” said Alex Newhouse, a researcher at the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism. the most obvious representation of government violence. “
When Carrillo was arrested in Ben Lomond, authorities discovered that he had written sentences in his own blood on his white delivery van, including “Bow”, and “I was unreasonable,” a reference to a man who became an icon. in anti-government groups. because of the 2004 rampage in which he bulldozed 13 buildings in a Colorado city over a land dispute.
Carrillo and his co-defendant in the federal case, Robert Justus, are said to have all met through a Boogaloo-affiliated Facebook group. The criminal charge against her refers to reports allegedly made by Carrillo, in which he talks about protesters wanting to manipulate police violence.
“Go to the riots and support our own cause. Show them the real goals, ‘Carrillo wrote in one post. “Use her anger to start our fire. See further. We have crowds of angry people to use to our advantage. ”
The night Underwood was killed, Carrillo and Justus drove to downtown Oakland in Carrillo’s white delivery van. Justus stepped out, the “exploration” on foot, then returned to Carrillo. Justus was in charge of the prison when Carrillo opened fire on Underwood and his partner, who were stationed in the Ronald Dellums Federal Building on Clay Street.
Carrillo, a resident of Ben Lomond, was the leader of a U.S. Air Force anti-terrorism team, and was stationed at Travis Air Force Base at the time of his arrest. Police say a week after Underwood’s murder, he obstructed Gutzwiller and other Santa Cruz deputies with a homemade AR-15-style rifle, and by lobbing pipe bombs at them. He allegedly tried several car hijackings after killing Gutzwiller in a shootout with police.
The charges against Carrillo make him eligible for a death sentence in both federal and state courts, though federal prosecutors said at Carrillo’s hearing earlier this month that they would not make a formal recommendation on the death until at least mid-September. Carrillo’s federal attorney predicted it would be several weeks longer than that, saying there are thousands of pages of discovery in the case.
During Thursday afternoon’s hearing – held in the East County Hall of Justice of Alameda County over the fires threatening Santa Cruz County – Carrillo could be heard telling Santa Cruz Superior Court Judge Paul Burdick ” yes, your honor, “agreed to his right to be present in person for non-essential hearings.
When Carrillo’s hearing was heard in Dublin, the town of Ben Lomond – where Gutzwiller was killed and Carrillo lived – was threatened by forest fires.
Although an absence of significant wind and an interruption of heat, dry weather helps firefighters control the fire above Ben Lomond. Crews have cut, scraped and burned a fire that runs over the mountainside above the city, but the fire above it is still burning and as of Thursday afternoon it was not clear when evacuated residents of Ben Lomond might return, Cal Fire said. spokesman Dan Olson.
Carrillo is currently being held without bail. His next hearing was scheduled for Dec. 11 in Santa Cruz County, to set a preliminary hearing date, likely to be held after January 1.
Ethan Baron contributed to this report
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