Police have arrested three right-wing extremists in Las Vegas after the trio allegedly planned to spark violence during a protest of the death of George Floyd. According to the Reno Gazette-Journal, the men were arrested Saturday while they were on their way to a protest taking place downtown Las Vegas. According to the criminal complaint against them, the men had been seen in a parking lot, making Molotov cocktails in glass bottles and filling up gas cans.
Andrew T. Lynam Jr., 23, Stephen T. Parshall, 35, and William L. Loomis, 40, were being held in the Clark County jail Wednesday, on a $1 million bond each. It is unclear if they are still behind bars, but the RGJ noted that court records did not list lawyers for any of them. All three men are white and have past U.S. military experience, with federal prosecutors stating that their plan began in April. At the time, the men were allegedly conspiring to carry out their plan on protests related to the reopening of businesses that had closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
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The criminal complaint against the men was filed in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas on Wednesday, and it revealed that the three white men self-identify themselves with the “boogaloo” movement. U.S. prosecutors stated in the document that this is “a term used by extremists to signify coming civil war and/or fall of civilization.” Nicholas A. Trutanich, U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada, stated that authorities have kept their sights on those who would hijack peaceful U.S. protests with violent instigation to exploit “the real and legitimate outrage over Mr. Floyd’s death for their own radical agendas.”
Floyd died on May 25, while being arrested by four former Minnesota police officers. One of the officers, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck while Floyd cried out that he couldn’t breathe, as seen in footage of the arrest that was shot by citizens who witnessed it. All four officers have since been arrested in connection to Floyd’s death, with Chauvin being charged with second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter with culpable negligence..
