By David M. Greenwald
Following the death of George Floyd, Minneapolis was the epicenter of mass protests, arson, rioting and looting. While this unrest and damage to property was in part in response to the death of Floyd. According to a sworn affidavit by the FBI, there are details about a far-right anti-government group’s coordinated role in the violence.
A member of the Boogaloo Bois, Ivan Hunter, a 26-year-old from Boerne, Texas, is charged with one count of interstate travel to incite a riot for his alleged role in ramping up violence during the protests in Minneapolis on May 27 and 28.
He allegedly plotted to ignite a civil war, opened fire on the Minneapolis Police Third Precinct with an AK-47-style gun and screamed “Justice for Floyd” as he ran away – according to a federal complaint released Friday.
According to the complaint, Boogaloo Bois member Michael Solomon of Minneapolis, at 10:56 am on May 26, posted on Facebook: “I need a headcount. If you have keybase message me on there ‘bighoogboi’ if not pm me.”
It was at this point that Ivan Hunter, a resident of Texas, responded to his request with a message, “72 hours out” and “can you give me any confirmation of KIAs [killed in action]?”
He PM’d that he was headed to Minneapolis.
Benjamin Teteer of North Carolina, also an admitted Boogaloo Bois member, publicly posted, “Lock and load boys. Boog flags are in the air, and the national network is going off.”
Hunter, wearing a skull mask and tactical gear, then shot 13 rounds at the south Minneapolis police headquarters while people were insite.
According to the complaint, “Federal agents have obtained a video taken during the civil unrest which shows an individual walking up to a door to the Third Precinct building and discharging 13 rounds from what appears to be an AK-47 style semiautomatic rifle.”
The shooter then walks toward the camera, high-fives another person and yells, “Justice For Floyd!”
The FBI notes that a cooperating defendant, identified Hunter as the individual who fired the AK-47 at the precinct building.
Writes the FBI, “This person informed investigators that at the time HUNTER fired the shots, there were other people believed to be looters still inside the building. In the video it appears that lights are on inside the precinct building at the time HUNTER shoots at the structure. Discharged rifle casings consistent with an AK-47 style firearm were recovered from the scene of the shooting the next day.”
Two hours after the police precinct fire, Hunter texted another Boogaloo member – Steve Carrillo – in California.
In their text exchange, Hunter said, “Go for police buildings.”
Carrillo responded, “I did better LOL.”
In fact, a few hours earlier, Carrillo had allegedly killed a Federal Protective Services officer in Oakland according to criminal charges filed against him there.
On June 1, Hunter had asked Carrillo for money. Carrillo shot and killed a sheriff’s deputy in Santa Cruz when authorities tried to arrest him. Carrillo responded by sending Hunter $200 “via a cash application,” Hunter thanked Carrillo, telling him, “now I stand a better chance Steve.”
Carrillo told Hunter, that he was “doing good (stuff) out there” and to “stay safe.”
On June 7, Hunter sent Teeter a private message through Facebook that contained a link to the article on Steven Carrillo’s June 6 arrest for the murder a Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Deputy.
Carrillo opened fire on deputies who were attempting to arrest him, stole a car, and later, when arrested, “officers found he had written the word “boog” on the hood of the vehicle in
what appeared to be his own blood.”
Hunter on June 10 posted, “I’ve burned police stations with black panthers in Minneapolis” and “I helped the community bum down that police station in Minneapolis.”
He also posted, “I didn’t’ protest peacefully Dude … Want something to change? Start risking felonies for
what is good.”
On June 11, he posted, “The BLM protesters in Minneapolis loved me [sic] fireteam and I.”
In August when the FBI received information about Hunter through a confidential source, he admitted “that he had fired his AK-47 into the precinct building in Minneapolis, had helped set the structure on fire, and had participated in looting.”
Hunter told investigators that “he is a Boogaloo Bois member and that he and Carrillo were founding members of the “Happy Friends Group” which, according to HUNTER, is a “fire team” that responds with violence if the police try to take their guns away. HUNTER also referred to himself as a “terrorist.””
When Hunter learned of Teeter’s federal arrest in Minnesota in September, he became angry and “threatened to start ‘killing people’ in retaliation.”
According to press accounts he is the third person who is a member of the Boogaloo Bois, a loose-knit group intent on igniting a second American civil war, to be charged in Minneapolis as a result of the unrest that followed Floyd’s death. Solomon and Teeter, previously mentioned were indicted in September with conspiracy to provide material support to Hamas.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
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