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Boogaloo member who entered NC Subway with a gun now accused in Hamas plot
Photos of members of an anti-government group carrying long guns, a pipe wrench, and an inert rocket launcher into a Subway restaurant in Raleigh went viral in May.
Now, one of those people has been accused of trying to sell weapons to undercover federal agents.
Benjamin Ryan Teeter, 22, from Hampstead, NC, and Michael Robert Solomon, 30, from New Brighton, Minn., were arrested and charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist group.
“Michael Solomon and Benjamin Teeter proclaim themselves to be members of the Boogaloo Bois, a group that espouses a violent ideology and an objective to overthrow the government,” said U.S. Attorney Erica H. MacDonald in a news release.
Solomon and Teeter appeared in U.S. District court on Friday via teleconference. They both were appointed federal defenders, according to the Associated Press.
“The term ‘Boogaloo’ itself references a supposedly impending second civil war in the United States and is associated with violent uprisings against the government,” the news release stated.
Solomon and Teeter said they were a part of a sub-group of Boogaloo Bois called the “Boojahideen,” according to an affidavit in the case.
According to the documents, the two men are accused of attempting to sell gun parts to Hamas, and expressing their desire to be “mercenaries” to earn money to support the Boogaloo Bois or Boojahideen movement.
The documents also state Teeter and Solomon discussed destroying a Northern Minnesota courthouse, killing U.S. politicians and inciting violence by attacking law enforcement and white supremacist group members at protests in Minneapolis.
The affidavit states that Teeter and Solomon also talked about raiding the headquarters of a white supremacist organization in North Carolina.
The FBI began an investigation into the “Boogaloo Bois” in late May after protests broke out against the death of a Black man, George Floyd, at the hands of police in Minneapolis
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A witness said Solomon was carrying firearms through residential Minneapolis neighborhoods and that “Solomon and Teeter possessed firearms and substantial quantities of ammunition,” the news release stated.
The affidavit quoted Solomon: “Here’s the thing. I want to take down twenty senators while they’re playing (expletive) baseball, right? I don’t want to blow up a courthouse. I want to murder a bunch of U.S. politicians. That’s the statement I want to make.”
Solomon and Teeter believed that an undercover FBI agent was a member of Hamas. In audio recordings, they said they shared anti-United States sentiment with Hamas, the affidavit stated.
They said they were willing to be mercenaries employed by Hamas and that they could make untraceable weapons, the news release stated. On July 30, they sold and negotiated a price for gun parts with a person they believed to be a senior member of Hamas — but who was actually an undercover FBI employee. Teeter and Solomon said they hoped the weapons would be used by Hamas to attack Israeli and U.S. soldiers, according to the news release.
A hearing for Teeter and Solomon is set for Sept. 9 via video conference. They will be held by the United States Marshal until the hearing.
In July, Subway altered its national policy about firearms in its stores, The News & Observer reported. The restaurant chain’s website includes a notice in the health and safety section of its social responsibility policies asking customers, other than law enforcement, to keep their weapons concealed.
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