#Right-wing extremists arrested for planning riots at protests in Las Vegas

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People shout slogans and hold placards, in downtown Las Vegas, as they take part in a “Black lives matter” rally.
Getty Images/Bridget Bennett

A trio of right-wing extremists with military backgrounds have been busted for plotting riots at George Floyd protests in Las Vegas — part of a plan to overthrow the government, according to the federal prosecutors.

Army reservist Andrew T. Lynam Jr., 23, former Navy man Stephen T. Parshall, 35, and former Air Force man William L. Loomis, 40, were being held on $1 million bond each on terrorism-related charges.

The trio were part of the “boogaloo” movement, “a term used by extremists to signify coming civil war and/or fall of civilization,” prosecutors said in a release.

They initially planned to hijack coronavirus lockdown rallies, with an armed Lynam telling an informant they “wanted to violently overthrow the United States government,” a criminal complaint says.

The group then focused on mass protests over Floyd’s death during his arrest in Minneapolis, saying they wanted to “incite chaos and possibly a riot,” the complaint says.

Loomis even bragged about plans to firebomb a power substation “to hopefully create civil unrest and rioting throughout Las Vegas,” the documents say.

They were arrested Saturday as they headed to Black Lives Matter rally — armed with gas cans, fireworks and Molotov cocktails, the feds said.

“This type of planning and intent on causing mayhem is terroristic and will not be tolerated,” said Steve Wolfson, the district attorney for Las Vegas.

US attorney Nicholas Trutanich said the arrests were proof that “violent instigators have hijacked peaceful protests … exploiting the real and legitimate outrage over Mr. Floyd’s death for their own radical agendas.”

If convicted on federal charges, the men face up to 30 years in prison. They will also be prosecuted on state charges of felony conspiracy, terrorism and explosives possession, officials said.

The “boogaloo” movement has adopted Hawaiian shirts as a uniform and often express support for overthrowing the US government.

Its name is believed to have started as a reference to the 1984 movie “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo,” starting as a meme about unwanted movie sequels — then somehow becoming extremists’ shorthand for a second civil war.

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