A man connected to the so-called “boogaloo” movement has been charged federally with crossing state lines to participate in a riot, and is accused of firing rounds from an assault rifle into a Minneapolis police precinct as it burned to the ground.
Charging documents released Friday detail the alleged activities of Ivan Harrison Hunter, 26, and also quote from alleged internet chats he had with Steven Carrillo. Carrillo, another alleged boogalooer, is accused of killing two law enforcement officers in California over the summer.
“Boogaloo” is an internet shorthand for a second civil war anticipated by many on the right-wing fringe. The loosely-defined group that characterize themselves with the term include everyone from explicit white nationalists, those looking to overthrow the government, and Second Amendment fundamentalists who seek to collectively defy firearms restrictions through force.
Bullet Holes In A Police Precinct
Soon after the police killing of George Floyd, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit released Friday, Hunter began a road trip from Texas to Minneapolis. His goal, the affidavit alleges, was to incite and participate in a riot as Minneapolis plunged into chaos.
Hunter had been in touch with Carrillo in March, according to the affidavit. And, as he traveled to Minnesota, he was allegedly in touch with two other men, Benjamin Ryan Teeter and Michael Solomon. Both are also allegedly part of the boogaloo movement, and were charged in September for attempting to provide material support for Hamas.
In Facebook posts and messages with Teeter and Solomon, Hunter allegedly said he’d be driving up to Minneapolis as part of a “team of 5,” and coordinated a meeting location nearby the city’s 3rd Police Precinct, which protesters burned to the ground on the night of the 28th in one of the defining moments of the Floyd protests.
That night, according to the affidavit, video shows someone discharging 13 rounds from what appeared to be an AK-47 style semiautomatic rifle into one of the precinct’s doors.
A cooperating defendant identified the shooter as Hunter, the affidavit said, and also informed investigators that people were inside the building at the time shots rang out. (The affidavit does not say that anyone was injured by gunfire.) A screen capture from the same video allegedly shows the man who fired the shots.
Eventually, in August, a confidential human source started giving information to the FBI. It was to that CHS, per the affidavit, that Hunted admitted he had fired his AK-47 into the precinct building and had helped set the structure on fire.
And, according to pictures and Facebook posts cited in the affidavit, Hunter bragged about his work.
“I set fire to that precinct with the black community,” Hunter allegedly said in a Facebook message on May 30. The next day, he allegedly messaged someone else, “My mom would call the fbi if she knew what I do and at the level I’m at w[ith] it.”
“I’ve burned police stations with black panthers in Minneapolis,” he allegedly posted on Facebook the following week, adding separately, “I didn’t’ protest peacefully Dude… Want something to change? Start risking felonies for what is good.”
(As early as January, Hunter was posting publicly about committing violent acts against the government, according to the affidavit. On January 1, he allegedly told another boogalooer that he would “throw the fist [sic] cocktail if I have to…then we steam roll them” and “do blow in the capital.”)
In one message, per the affidavit, Hunter sent a picture of a gun with a floral-patterned magazine — though, a few days later, he would deny that a similar looking magazine and other firepower belonged to him during a traffic stop in Texas.
But it seems the boogalooer couldn’t help himself: During the traffic stop, on June 3, he told police officers “that he was the leader of the Boogaloo Bois in South Texas and that he was present in Minneapolis when the Third Precinct was set on fire,” the affidavit alleged.
The Steven Carrillo Connection
It was only after that Texas traffic stop that investigators became aware of Hunter’s alleged connection with Carrillo, who is accused of murdering a Federal Protective Service officer in Oakland on May 29 and a sheriff’s deputy in Ben Lomond, California on June 6.
The two exchanged Facebook messages as early as March, according to the affidavit. Just four hours after Carrillo allegedly murdered FPS Officer Dave Patrick Underwood, Hunter and Carrillo allegedly spoke about the “boog” on social media.
“Go for police buildings,” Hunter allegedly told Carrillo.
“I did better lol,” Carrillo allegedly replied.
A couple days later, according to the affidavit, Carrillo sent Hunter $200 virtually after Hunter asked for money. Hunter also allegedly told the FBI’s confidential source that he and Carrillo were founding members of a group called “Happy Friends Group,” which according to Hunter was a “fire team” intended to respond if authorities attempted to take any member’s guns away.
After Carrillo’s eventual arrest, Hunter sent a message about it to Teeter, to which Teeter responded “Well shit,” according to the affidavit.
