Suspect in Santa Cruz deputy’s killing charged in Oakland slaying of security guard
Oakland CA June 17 2020
An Air Force sergeant suspected in the fatal shooting of a Santa Cruz County sheriff’s deputy on June 6 allegedly shot and killed a federal security guard in Oakland a week earlier, federal authorities said Tuesday as they announced charges against him and a man accused of driving a van involved in the crimes.
Both men are believed to be supporters of an anti-government movement that seeks to spark a civil war and whose members have seized on recent anti-brutality protests against the police to incite violence, authorities said.
Steven Carrillo, who was charged last week in the ambush shooting attack in Ben Lomond that killed Damon Gutzwiller, a 38-year-old Santa Cruz County sheriff’s sergeant, was charged in the killing of 53-year-old federal security officer David Patrick Underwood on May 29.
Robert Alvin Justus Jr., a 30-year-old who allegedly drove a white van from which Carrillo fired, faces aiding and abetting the murder and attempted murder charges, authorities said.
“In announcing today’s charges, we are reaffirming our determination to protect those who protect us,” U.S. Attorney David L. Anderson said.
Additional people were injured in both incidents.
Underwood of Pinole was killed and another guard was wounded as they kept watch over the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building in Oakland while protests over police brutality took place a few blocks away. Federal officials captured the shooter’s white van on surveillance video, which showed the gunman sliding open the side door of the van to fire the weapon while another individual drove.
Carrillo, who has been stationed at Travis Air Force Base since 2018, allegedly took advantage of the nearby protests over the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd and other people of color, which consumed much of law enforcement’s attention that night.
“They came to Oakland to kill cops,” FBI Special Agent in Charge John Bennett said Tuesday.
Carrillo was attached to the 60th Security Forces Squadron, a military police unit, and he also led an elite security unit. Investigators learned that he and Justus had a connection through cell phone records, and Justus was put under surveillance before turning himself in Thursday to San Francisco’s FBI office. His first court appearance was Monday, officials said.
On May 29, Justus exited a parked white van across the street from a guard shack by the Oakland federal building and monitored the area for about 10 minutes before returning to the van, turning on the headlights and driving Carrillo to shoot Underwood from out of the sliding door, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
The shooting led authorities on a manhunt that ended eight days later when a witness reported an abandoned white Ford van in Ben Lomond. Evidence in the van led Santa Cruz County sheriff’s deputies to Carrillo’s home, where he opened fire, killing Gutzwiller, before fleeing on foot and eventually carjacking a vehicle on a nearby highway, officials said.
Carrillo allegedly used his own blood to write several phrases on the hood of a car that he carjacked, federal authorities said. The phrases are believed to be related to an extremist ideology called boogaloo that officials said promotes inciting a violent uprising with militias.
Federal authorities learned of the extremist group’s efforts to incite followers to start a civil war two days after George Floyd’s death, according to Politico, which reported on a Department of Homeland Security memo warning of “domestic terrorist actors” who could exploit Floyd’s death.
Some extremists use the term “boogaloo” to refer to the start of a second civil war, according to the report.
The first people to face charges and be suspected of having ties to the movement were arrested in late May in Las Vegas, according to news reports. Three men — Stephen Parshall, Andrew Lynam and William Loomis — were suspected of plotting efforts to spark violence during protests there.
Carrillo, 32, was charged last week with Gutzwiller’s murder and numerous other felonies that include attempted murder of other law enforcement officials, explosion with intent to murder and assault upon a firefighter, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Santa Cruz County district attorney’s office. His arraignment was postponed until next month.
On June 6, Gutzwiller was shot to death in Ben Lomond as he investigated a suspicious white van reported to have weapons and explosives inside. Investigators said Carrillo shot him with an assault rifle as Gutzwiller and another sheriff’s deputy exited their patrol vehicles.
Carrillo’s assault rifle was privately made and had no markings, and a machine gun with a silencer attached to the barrel had no serial numbers or markings, officials said. Carrillo also allegedly tossed improvised explosive devices at the deputies.
Deputy Alex Spencer was shot in the chest, but his protective vest saved him, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim Hart said. Spencer was released from a hospital last weekend after recovering from a gunshot, shrapnel wounds and injuries from allegedly being hit by Carrillo’s fleeing car.
In the 48 hours before the Santa Cruz County officers were ambushed, Carrillo posted numerous Facebook posts that were critical of police brutality and law enforcement’s responses to the Black Lives Matter protests.
During a June 8 news conference at the Sheriff’s Office in Soquel, Hart said Carrillo was “an angry man intent on bringing harm to police officers.”
