Suspected cop killer charged in fatal shooting of Oakland security guard, linked to right-wing extremist group

Federal officials on Tuesday announced that suspected Santa Cruz County cop killer Steven Carrillo appeared to support a right-wing extremist group, and he and another man will be charged in the fatal shooting of a federal security officer last month in downtown Oakland.

Carrillo, who was charged last week in the killing Damon Gutzwiller, a 38-year-old Santa Cruz County sheriff’s sergeant who was ambushed in Ben Lomond, will also be charged in the killing of 53-year-old federal security officer David Patrick Underwood, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Additional people were injured in both incidents.

Officials said Carrillo had the help of 30-year-old Robert Justus, of Millbrae, who acted as the getaway driver of the white van that was not only connected to the May 29 shooting in Oakland, but also the Ben Lomond attack.

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 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.

“There is no evidence, any mention to join protests,” official said. “They came to Oakland to kill cops.”

Investigators learned that Justus had a connection to Carrillo and he 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.

A patch and blood written on the van indicated Carrillo was a follower of the Boogaloo movement, a right-wing extremist group that has called for civil unrest and a second civil war, officials said.

Federal authorities learned of the white supremacist extremist group’s efforts to incite followers to start the Boogaloo 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.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/Suspected-Santa-Cruz-County-cop-killer-Millbrae-15343978.php