Air Force Sergeant Steven Carrillo was indicted by a federal grand jury Monday on murder and attempted murder charges in connection with the May 29 shooting outside the federal building in Oakland.
As the Chronicle reports, Carrillo came before a judge in a video conference Monday morning and was informed that the grand jury has charged him 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 United States.
The indictment follows two weeks after the federal government charged Carrillo and an accomplice in the drive-by shooting of 53-year-old federal security officer David Patrick Underwood and his partner as they were standing at a guard station outside the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building in downtown Oakland.
Separately, Carrillo is facing murder and attempted murder charges in state court stemming from the June 6 incident in Ben Lomond, in Santa Cruz County, that left a 38-year-old sheriff's deputy dead.
According to a federal affidavit, Carrillo conspired with 30-year-old Robert Alvin Justus Jr. of Millbrae to drive to Oakland and use the distraction of a major Black Lives Matter protest several blocks away to commit an act of domestic terrorism against two federal security officers.
Carrillo and Justus appear to have met via a Facebook group devoted to the Boogaloo movement, a disorganized online movement seemingly bent on doing harm to employees of federal government agencies. As the New York Times previously reported, adherents exchange memes and refer to federal law enforcement as "soup bois," a shorthand for "alphabet soup," referring to all agency acronyms like CIA, HSA, and FBI. Friends of Carrillo have suggested that he was set off by images of police using force against protesters in Minneapolis and elsewhere during the week following the death of George Floyd. And online chatter with Justus, and possibly others, suggested that Carrillo was gearing up for offline violence and saying things like "show them who the real targets are."
Carrillo preached some sort of libertarian ideals, and appears to have delighted in causing harm to the officers in Oakland. Per the affidavit — apparently via testimony from Justus — Carrillo shouted, "Did you see how they fucking fell?!" after he had shot the two men from the door of a white cargo van being driven by Justus.
Justus has claimed that he was not aware until he arrived and saw Carrillo's weaponry that they were going to be doing real harm — and he has told investigators that he tried to talk Carrillo out of the shooting before helping him to accomplish it.
After a weeklong manhunt, Carrillo's van was spotted in the area of Jamison Creek Road in Ben Lomond, full of weapons and improvised explosives. Santa Cruz deputies were dispatched to investigate, and were allegedly ambushed by Carrillo on June 6, leading to the shooting death of one deputy and Carrillo's ultimate arrest.
In his own blood on a vehicle, just prior to his arrest, Carrillo write "Stop the duopoly," referring to the two-party system, and "BOOG."
Previously: Santa Cruz Shooter Charged Along With 'Boogaloo Movement' Accomplice In Oakland Shooting Of Federal Officers