4 destroyed evidence in shooting of guard
Four men connected to the far-right Boogaloo Bois movement have pleaded guilty to conspiring to destroy evidence in the fatal shooting of a security guard outside a federal building in Oakland last year.
The guard, David Patrick Underwood, 53, of Pinole, a federal contractor working at the Ronald V. Dellums building, was killed by shots fired from a motor vehicle in May 2020.
Federal prosecutors have charged Air Force Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo with Underwood’s murder and the attempted murder of a second guard, who was wounded. They said Carrillo, a Boogaloo member, used a local protest against the recent police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis as cover for the attacks.
Carrillo is also charged with murdering a Santa Cruz County sheriff ’s deputy and wounding five others in the town of Ben Lomond a week later. He was captured after those shootings and has pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors announced the guilty pleas in San Francisco federal court Monday of four men who admitted conspiring to destroy records related to the Oakland shootings. They are Jessie Rush, 29, of Turlock; Robert Blancas, 33, a transient resident of the Bay Area; Simon Ybarra, 23, of Los Gatos; and Kenny Miksch, 21, of San Lorenzo.
All acknowledged in their plea agreements that they were members of a Boogaloo-affiliated armed militia called the Grizzly Scouts, with Rush as their commander, prosecutors said.
Although not charged with acts of violence, all four admitted that they held meetings in May and June 2020 where they labeled law enforcement officers as “enemy forces” and discussed plans to wage war against the government and kill police, prosecutors said.
They said Rush admitted that Carrillo, also a Grizzly Scouts member, had contacted the group after the Oakland shooting and that Rush told Carrillo to delete data on his cell phone. Prosecutors said Blancas admitted destroying Dropbox records of the militia’s organization, and all four admitted deleting other records of the group’s structure and Carrillo’s involvement.
In a separate case, Blancas pleaded guilty last month to inducing a 15-year-old girl to send him pornographic photos of herself. He is to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in December, and the others face sentencing at later dates before U.S. District Judge James Donato.