‘Boogaloo’ Right-Wing Extremist Steven Carrillo Changes Plea In Officer Shooting

According to records filed Monday, Steven Carrillo, a former U.S. Air Force sergeant, plans to change his not guilty plea related to his shooting of a security officer outside of a federal building in Oakland during protests against police brutality in 2020.

Carrillo, 33, first pleaded not guilty to killing federal security officer Patrick Underwood in July 2020. Underwood was shot on May 29, 2020, while standing in a guard shack. Authorities suspect that Carrillo shot Underwood from a white van, after hatching a plan to descend on the city as most authorities were distracted from protestors marching against police killings.

Records indicate that prosecutors agreed to not pursue the death penalty for Carrillo, and he’ll be changing his plea in a San Francisco federal court Friday.

Carrillo is allegedly tied to the “boogaloo” movement, which is a loose anti-government extremist movement that began in alt-right communities on the internet and has been seen at several 2020 protest events wielding guns including Black Lives Matter demonstrations and rallies protesting pandemic lockdowns. The term “boogaloo” was coined as a reference to an impending civil war, usually between gun owners and their critics, with another version of the online joke being “Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo.”

Only a week after the Oakland shooting, Carrillo was involved in an attack on sheriff’s deputies in Santa Cruz County. The deputies were responding to a report of a van containing firearms when Carrillo allegedly ambushed the group, resulting in the death of Sgt Damon Gutzwiller and the injury of other deputies. Carrillo has pleaded not guilty to killing Gutzwiller.