An Ohio man who was a member of the anti-government extremist “boogaloo” movement was sentenced to more than three years in prison Thursday for threatening to kill law enforcement officers, federal prosecutors said.
One of the threats that Aron McKillips made online included a photo of him at his home pointing a rifle at a police officer parked down the street, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio said in a statement.
McKillips, now 30, of Sandusky, was arrested and charged in 2022. A criminal complaint said that he was a well-known member of the “Boogaloo Boys,” which is sometimes spelled “Boogaloo Bois.”
The movement says it wants a second civil war and advocates violence against law enforcement. People associated with it have been involved in threats to police or attacks on law enforcement, including the 2020 fatal shooting of a federal officer as the officer stood guard outside an Oakland, California, courthouse.
McKillips pleaded guilty on April 9 to one count each of interstate communication of threats and unlawful possession of a machine gun, according to court records.
He was sentenced Thursday to 41 months in prison, or three years and five months.
The machine gun count involves a “drop-in auto sear” that McKillips possessed, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
The device is used to enable an AR-style rifle to fire fully automatic, and McKillips had given at least three sears to other members of the “boogaloo” movement, according to a confidential source cited by the FBI in an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint.
An auto sear by itself is considered a machine gun by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
An attorney listed as representing McKillips did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.