A Texas man pleaded guilty to a single count of rioting after traveling to Minneapolis from the San Antonio area to create chaos under the shroud of the 2020 protests in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder.
Ivan Harrison Hunter, 24, pleaded guilty in federal court on Thursday to a single count of rioting, a charge that carries a maximum term of five years in prison. Hunter admitted to firing 13 rounds from an assault rifle into the Minneapolis 3rd Police precinct on May 28 last year while rioters looted and set fire to the building following evacuation by police, reported Minneapolis Public Radio. No one was harmed by the gunfire.
U.S. District Judge Michael Davis will schedule a sentencing hearing following a pre-sentence investigation. Hunter could serve between 37 and 46 months in federal prison.
Hunter is connected to the Boogaloo Boys, an extremist, white supremacist movement which ultimately seeks to incite the “boogaloo,” or a second American Civil War. The Southern Poverty Law Center writes that the Boogaloo Boys (or “Bois”) started out as a racist meme that grew into a “loose online network of adherents” over the last decade.
Hunter was ultimately brought down by his own social media presence. Prosecutors said Hunter came to Minneapolis shortly following Floyd’s murder after corresponding on Facebook with Michael Solomon of Minnesota, who pleaded guilty to a federal terrorism charge, and Benjamin Teeter of Hampstead, N.C., who also pleaded guilty to a terrorism charge.
Hunter also communicated with Steven Carrillo, a California man charged with killing a federal officer and a sheriff’s deputy. Solomon, Teeter, and Carrillo are all connected to the Boogaloo Boys
Following the shooting, Hunter was allegedly recorded on video high-fiving another person and yelling “Justice for Floyd!” Investigators matched the skull mask he wore in a video to one he wore in a photo on his Facebook page.
Several white supremacists, acting alone and organized with others, incited riots and looting during the Floyd protests. The riots were often designed to create deeper racial tensions and exacerbate problems among otherwise peaceful Black Lives Matter protestors. The FBI opened more than 300 domestic terrorism investigations following the protests and national unrest.
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