April 9, 2021-
Four members of a militia group tied to the far-right Boogaloo movement have been accused of planning to destroy records in an investigation into the murder and attempted murder of two federal security officers in Oakland, California.
Jessie Alexander Rush, Robert Jesus Blancas, Simon Sage Ybarra, and Kenny Matthew Miksch were charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice, the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California announced on Friday.
According to an indictment filed on March 23 and unsealed on Friday, the four men were members of a Northern California militia group called the “1st Detachment, 1st California Grizzly Scouts.”
According to records cited in the indictment, the group connected through Facebook and regularly spoke of the “Boogaloo” movement, which extremists often use to reference an uprising against the government.
According to the Indictment, Rush, Blancas, Tbarra, Miksch, and others referenced “boog” while talking about the killings of law enforcement officers.
The indictment references a May 2020 shooting, in which two federal Protective Security Officers were shot outside a federal courthouse in Oakland – one of the officers, identified by the Mercury News as Federal Protective Services Ofc. Dave Patrick Underwood, died in the shooting.
The indictment alleges that members of the Grizzly Scouts tried to delete electronic data in which they spoke about killing law enforcement officers after the shooting.
“The indictment alleges Rush immediately instructed the Grizzly Scout member on the WhatsApp group to delete evidence on his phone. In addition, the indictment alleges that less than an hour after the shooting in Ben Lomond, Blancas deleted files related to the Grizzly Scouts from a Dropbox account,” prosecutors said. “Further, within hours of the shooting, members of the Grizzly Scouts including Rush, Blancas, Ybarra, and Miksch allegedly began to reconnect on an alternative communications application.”
All four men face up to 20 years in federal prison and $250,000 fines if they’re convicted.
Two other Grizzly Scout members, Steven Carrillo and Robert Alvin Justus Jr., have been charged with Underwood’s murder, according to The Mercury News.
Carrillo is also facing charges in the shooting death of Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, who was killed a week after Underwood.
- Four members of the “1st Detachment, 1st California Grizzly Scouts” militia group have been charged with a conspiracy to obstruct justice.
- They’re accused of trying to delete information tied to the death of a federal officer in Oakland.
- The charged men have been identified as Jessie Rush, Robert Blancas, Simon Ybarra, and Kenny Miksch.
