SANDUSKY, Ohio — A Sandusky resident who is allegedly a member of the "Boogaloo Bois" movement was arrested in possession of weapons after allegedly plotting a scheme to kill government officials.
Aron McKillips was arrested without incident by members of the Cleveland Division of the FBI, Toledo Resident Agency on Tuesday. The 29-year-old McKillips was charged with unlawful possession of a machine gun and interstate communication of threats.
According to a criminal complaint obtained first by The Daily Beast, McKillips is a "well-known member" of the Boogaloo Bois, a loosely affiliated militia group seeking to overthrow the government by initiating a second Civil War. The complaint alleges that McKillips built homemade machine guns, collected silencers and bomb-making materials and acquired a rifle-mounted grenade launcher while plotting to kill as many government officials as possible before police killed him.
Messages obtained by investigators show that McKillips was looking to carry out an attack modeled after the 2017 mass shooting at a Las Vegas country music concert that killed 60 people and wounded at least 413. In messages, he also spoke of wanting to “blow up the IRS,” destroy Facebook headquarters and detonate a pipe bomb at a local child support office.
According to The Daily Beast, the investigation into McKillips dates back to New Year's Eve 2020, when he was stopped for a traffic violation in Sandusky. During the stop, officers found “several hundred rounds of 5.56mm and 9mm ammunition, body armor, AR-15 rifle upper receiver, parachute flares, medical kits, firearm components, and military style equipment," in addition to “two marijuana roaches in the center console" in McKillips' car.
While McKillips was issued a citation and released, a confidential informant later provided investigators with a photo of an AR-15-type rifle fitted with a grenade launcher that had been posted in a Signal chat. Police linked the poster's username linked back to McKillips’ name and home address.