Former Air Force sergeant tied to Boogaloo movement sentenced for murder of federal officer

A former Air Force sergeant who pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of a government employee and attempted murder of another was sentenced Friday to 41 years in prison.

Steven Carrillo, 34, pleaded guilty in February to the shooting death of Protective Services Officer Dave Patrick Underwood and the injury of a second security contractor outside the Oakland Federal Courthouse in May 2020 during the protests over the death of George Floyd.

Carrillo, who was an active Air Force member at the time, admitted that he had “aligned himself with an anti-government ideology and wanted to carry out violent acts against federal law enforcement, in particular,” the Department of Justice said in a statement.

Steven Carrillo

He allegedly met his partner, Robert Alvin Justus Jr., through a Facebook group for “Boogaloo Bois,” or members of the far-right anti-government extremist movement, and the pair had planned to use the protests as cover to wreak their own havoc, according to prosecutors.

On May 29, 2020, Carrillo and Justus drove to Oakland with guns and incendiary devices in their van and just before 9:45 p.m., Carrillo fired 19 shots at the front of the courthouse, hitting Underwood and the second officer, who was left with life-threatening and permanent injuries, but survived.

Justus has pleaded not guilty to aiding and abetting murder and attempted murder.

“I know (the plea agreement) won’t make you happy, but I need you to trust me,” Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said directly to Underwood’s family in court Friday, according to the Mercury News. “I would not accept it if I saw no measure of redemption.”

Carrillo still faces pending state murder charges for the death of Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller about a week after the courthouse attack, when he allegedly ambushed a group of officers in Ben Lomond, Calif., with improvised explosives, then opened fire, killing the 38-year-old Gutzwiller.