The men are accused of conspiring to destroy communications and other records related to the May 29, 2020, killing of federal security officer David Patrick Underwood and attempted murder of his partner as they guarded the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building in Oakland.
The officers were shot while a large demonstration over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis was underway nearby. Prosecutors said Air Force Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo, 32, fatally shot Underwood and wounded his partner. They said Carrillo used the protest as cover for the crime and for his escape. Carrillo has pleaded not guilty.
Days later, Carrillo, who had ties to the “boogaloo” movement, ambushed and killed a California sheriff’s deputy and injured four other officers in Santa Cruz County, authorities said. Carrillo is awaiting trial on murder and attempted-murder charges.
The men indicted Friday are Jessie Alexander Rush, 29, of Turlock, Calif.; Robert Jesus Blancas, 33, a transient resident of the Bay Area; Simon Sage Ybarra, 23, of Los Gatos, Calif.; and Kenny Matthew Miksch, 21, of San Lorenzo, Calif.
Rush, Blancas, Ybarra and Miksch are charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice by destroying records and the destruction of records in official proceedings. Rush is charged with an additional count of obstruction of official proceedings, and Blancas is charged with an additional count of destruction of records in official proceedings.
— Associated Press
ALABAMA
Stolen Confederate monument recovered
Authorities have recovered a Confederate monument that had been stolen in Alabama and was the subject of a ransom note threatening to convert it into a toilet, New Orleans police confirmed Friday.
A spokesperson for the New Orleans Police Department wrote in an email that “we can confirm that we recovered the chair” and that two people have been arrested on charges of possession of stolen property. Investigators are also searching for another suspect. Police said the monument was “seemingly undamaged” and would be given back to its owners.
The saga began March 20 when a representative of the United Daughters of the Confederacy reported to police that the “Jefferson Davis Memorial Chair” had gone missing from a Selma, Ala., cemetery. The monument has no direct connection to Davis but is shaped like a chair and was in a private section of the cemetery with other Confederate monuments.
Someone sent an email signed “White Lies Matter” to news outlets Monday claiming responsibility and saying the chair would be returned only if the United Daughters of the Confederacy agreed to display a banner at their Virginia headquarters bearing a quote from a Black Liberation Army activist.
New Orleans police say Stanley Warnick and Kathryn Diionno were arrested for having stolen property in their possession, and authorities are searching for a man named Stanley Pate.
— Associated Press
OHIO
City to settle over 911 call in student's death
Cincinnati has agreed to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the family of a 16-year-old student who died three years ago after being accidentally trapped in a van and calling 911 twice.
City officials announced Friday it would pay $6 million to the family of Kyle Plush and spend $250,000 on an outside review of the city’s 911 call system.
Plush died trapped under a folding seat in a minivan parked near his school on April 10, 2018. His father found him six hours after he managed to call 911 using voice commands to activate the phone in his pocket.
Two officers sent in response to Plush’s first 911 call drove through parking areas around the school but did not get out. Police have said they did not have the information needed to narrow their search.
Plush’s family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in 2019 against the city, two 911-center employees, two police officers and a former city official.
— Associated Press