Feds: WVa man sold machine gun mod to boogaloo extremists
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Federal prosecutors accused a West Virginia man on Tuesday of conspiracy against the U.S. government and selling machine gun conversion devices online to followers of a far-right extremist movement.
Timothy John Watson, 30, was charged after he was arrested in early September for allegedly running a website claiming to sell wall hangers that authorities said could be actually used to turn semi-automatic AR-15 rifles into fully automatic machine guns.
Authorities said the devices were sold to supporters of the anti-government “boogaloo” movement, the code word they use for their talk of a second civil war. Their prominence has grown during the pandemic as many dressed in Hawaiian shirts and camouflage garb, sometimes toting guns, attended protests against government shutdowns.
Prosecutors said Watson’s customers include an Air Force sergeant in California accused of shooting and killing a federal security officer and of injuring several security personnel in May and June. Authorities said Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo had used a homemade AR-15-style rifle in two shootings and wore gear with references to the boogaloo movement.
“The suspect in this case appears to have supplied hundreds of people with these conversion devices, some to people who want to do Americans harm,” U.S. Attorney Bill Powell said in a statement.
Watson had pleaded not guilty. A judge has not yet ruled on a request for Watson to be released under house arrest.
His attorney, Shawn McDermott denied in a court filing that Watson belonged to “any so-called Boogaloo movement" and said his client "would reject any ideology that is based upon violence." He said Watson operated his wall hanger business legally and that his products are not designed to create automatic machine guns any more than a clothes hanger made...