A federal grand jury indicted an Air Force sergeant for murder and attempted murder after he allegedly killed a federal security guard in Northern California and wounded his partner amid protests against police brutality, a judge said Monday.
Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler told Steven Carrillo, 32, that the grand jury charged him in the indictment with first-degree murder of a person assisting an officer or employee of the United States and attempted murder of a person assisting an officer or employee of the U.S., the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Carrillo is accused of spraying bullets across a guard shack May 29 in front of a federal in Oakland, killing 53-year-old David Patrick Underwood and wounding another official.
Carrillo did not enter a plea Monday. His case was continued until Thursday, when he is expected to be appointed a lawyer who will represent him.
A week after the shooting in Oakland, Carrillo allegedly ambushed sheriff’s deputies in Santa Cruz County who were responding to a a report of a van containing firearms and bomb-making materials. Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, 38, was killed and several other law enforcement officials were wounded, according to authorities and court records.
Prosecutors in Santa Cruz charged Carrillo with a slew of felonies, including murder and attempted murder in connection to the Ben Lomond incident.
Federal prosecutors have linked Carrillo with the charges to an extremist, anti-government group called the Boogaloo movement.
The group started in alt-right culture on the internet with the belief that there is an impending civil war, according to experts. The movement’s followers, some of whom call themselves “Boogaloo Bois,” are generally younger and more likely to turn to acts of violence than members of other militia-type groups.
Authorities accused Carrillo of fatally shooting Underwood from a white van after developing a plot with Robert Alvin Justus Jr., of Millbrae. The pair allegedly drove to Oakland and took advantage of the distraction afforded by protesters marching through the city’s downtown in a demonstration against police brutality. Justus is accused of driving the van.
Justus was arraigned on Friday, and entered a not-guilty plea.
