Los Angeles Times - 01.08.2019

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... We are trying to go

through all the literature

and make sense of it.”

Authorities in Nevada

searched a triplex unit

where Legan lived. Court

documents showed they re-

trieved items including a

bulletproof vest, empty

weapon and ammunition

boxes, a pocketknife, a gun

light, a camouflage back-

pack, pamphlets on guns, a

sack of ammo casings, a gas

mask and gloves.

They also took electron-

ics: three hard drives, three

thumb drives, a flip phone

and a computer tower. They

found a letter to Legan from

a woman, according to the

court records.

Legan’s home in Gilroy

was also searched. Author-

ities hope his electronic foot-

print will yield clues.

Before the attack, Legan

posted a photo on Insta-

gram of a Smokey Bear sign

warning about fire danger,

with a caption instructing

people to read an obscure

novel glorified by white su-

premacists: “Might Is Right”

published under the pseud-

onym Ragnar Redbeard.

The book, published in

1890, includes discredited

principles related to social

Darwinism that have been

used to justify racism, slav-

ery and colonialism, said

Brian Levin, director of Cal

State San Bernardino’s Cen-

ter for the Study of Hate and

Extremism.

A study published by Cal

State San Bernardino’s Cen-

ter for the Study of Hate and

Extremism this month

found that mass shooters

frequently used sites such as

8chan, Telegram, Gab and

Facebook around the time of

their attacks. It remains un-

clear whether Legan used

any of these sites, author-

ities say.

“Over the last decade,”

Levin said, “many of the

most notorious extremist

mass killers have participa-

ted in, or were influenced by,

bigoted content on social

media before undertaking

attacks in their home re-

gions.”

He cautioned that there

were a lot of factors that

could spur someone to carry

out a violent act, not just one

motivating cause. But

young people who don’t be-

long to a specific hate group

can self-radicalize through

content from those groups

easily found online, Levin

said.

Bennett, the FBI official,

said authorities had not de-

termined that Legan had

white supremacist leanings.

Michael Downing, a re-

tired deputy chief with the

Los Angeles Police Depart-

ment’s counter-terrorism

unit, said digital footprints

were a “critical tool” for law

enforcement in shooting in-

vestigations where the gun-

man had died.

Downing, currently chief

security officer with Oak

View Group, said the indi-

vidual’s online presence

could be telling for investiga-

tors who were tasked with

piecing together the per-

son’s motivations without

being able to speak with him.

“A digital footprint shows

what they are reading, who

they are associating with

and who they are influenced

by,” he said.

FBI gathers info,

begins to build

profile of gunman

AARON SOTELO lays out Gilroy Strong shirts, two

days after a shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival.

Kent NishimuraLos Angeles Times

[Profile,from B1]

Amanda Kathleen Custer,

has not been found.

Sheriff ’s officials con-

firmed they have seen the

footage, but have not been

able to secure the original

file.

“We want to make sure

it’s unedited,” said Deputy

Trina Schrader, a Los Ange-

les County Sheriff ’s Depart-

ment spokeswoman. “If it’s

edited, then in court people

can poke holes in it.”

Sheriff ’s deputies had al-

ready been looking for Cam-

ou for nearly a day in connec-

tion with Custer’s disap-

pearance when the video

was recorded.

Michael R. Moore, 64, was

behind the camera around 1

a.m. Tuesday, but said he

wasn’t aware of who he had

filmed until he saw Camou

on television being arrested

hours later. He had a strange

feeling about the perform-

ance, he said.

“What he said, he said it

with such force that people

just stopped,” Moore said.

“They were shocked. There

was a lot of hate in his ex-

pression.”

As they sat at the bar,

Camou sipped a beer and

asked Moore where he

planned to post the video.

Moore told him he was

putting it out everywhere —

meaning all across his social

media accounts.

“He said that was cool,”

Moore said.

Camou became the focus

of the kidnapping probe

early Monday when police

responding to a domestic vi-

olence call at his home in the

600 block of Vaquero Road in

Monrovia found blood, sher-

iff ’s Lt. Scott Hoglund said.

Investigators suspect

Camou assaulted Custer

and took her from the home

against her will. A witness

told authorities they saw

him putting Custer, who ap-

peared possibly uncon-

scious, in the rear cargo

hatch of a 2017 gray Toyota

Prius, Hoglund said.

It was not clear whether

she had been injured when

she was put in the car, he

added.

Public records show

Custer lives less than a block

away from the home on Va-

quero Road that Camou

shares with his parents. It is

not clear when they met, but

Hoglund said they had been

dating for at least two years.

Much of their relation-

ship has been tumultuous,

marred by domestic vi-

olence allegations that have

become more persistent in

the last several months, ac-

cording to police and Los

Angeles County court re-

cords.

In early February, Custer

sought a restraining order

against Camou, alleging he

was verbally, mentally and

emotionally abusive toward

her. She wrote in the filing

that Camou had been har-

assing her with text mes-

sages and phone calls using

“over 100 fake numbers” for

more than a month when he

scaled a side fence to her

home and tried to get into

her bedroom in late January.

She told him to leave and

sat down on the floor of her

bedroom until she couldn’t

hear him anymore. When

she looked out the window

into her yard, she saw him

carrying a hatchet, she

wrote.

“As he was walking away

with it I opened my window

and asked him if he planned

on taking that too like he

took my book for school,”

she wrote. “He turned

around came running at my

window and broke my dou-

ble pane window with the

hatchet.”

Custer alleged he took

the hatchet and smashed

the side mirrors off her

grandmother’s car. Camou

is facing a misdemeanor

vandalism charge in connec-

tion to the incident. He has

pleaded not guilty, court re-

cords show.

Custer wrote in the filing

that Camou has a 12-gauge

shotgun and a black hand-

gun that he keeps under his

bed, and expressed concern

over the safety of her dog, a

pit bull-boxer mix named

Piper.

“I also think he would go

as far as hurting her or

killing her to hurt me,” she

wrote.

The petition was denied

after a hearing in late Febru-

ary. Shortly after they left

the courtroom, Camou re-

sponded by filing his own re-

straining order, alleging that

Custer hit him on multiple

occasions and requesting

$2,000 from her for counsel-

ing and temporary housing,

the document shows. That

request was dismissed by a

judge in March.

Records regarding the

couple date back to April

2018, when a woman identi-

fied as Custer’s grandmoth-

er filed a petition for a re-

straining order against

Camou. She alleged that her

granddaughter was choked

and her face bloodied in an

attack and that Camou

would harass them and fre-

quently drive past their

house. Her request was also

denied after a hearing in

May 2018.

Camou was taken into

custody early Tuesday —

hours after allegedly per-

forming his rap — after Mon-

rovia police informed Los

Angeles police early Tues-

day that he might be in the

downtown area in a Prius.

Officers found the vehicle

shortly before 3 a.m. parked

near the intersection of Hill

and 2nd streets, about half a

mile from the King Eddy bar.

Camou, who was sleeping

in the back seat, was awak-

ened by officers trying to get

him to step out of the car. He

refused, at times pretending

to still be asleep, police said.

About five hours later, an

LAPD SWAT team shot tear

gas into the car to force him

out. Camou was still wearing

a dark blazer when officers

in tactical gear led him away

from the car in handcuffs.

He is being held without bail

on a warrant related to do-

mestic violence, burglary,

battery and assault charges

that were filed against him in

May. He pleaded not guilty

to those charges in June, ac-

cording to court records.

“At the arraignment our

office requested that bail be

set at $150,000, but over the

prosecutor’s objections the

court released the defend-

ant on electronic monitor-

ing,” said Paul Eakins, a

spokesman for the Los An-

geles County district attor-

ney. “The prosecutor re-

quested a protective order,

which the court issued.”

Times staff writer Richard

Winton contributed to this

report.

SWATofficers gather near a car Tuesday in downtown L.A. in which a kidnapping suspect was found.

Irfan KhanLos Angeles Times

Video may implicate man

[Video,from B1]

AUTHORITIESbelieve that Amanda Kathleen

Custer was kidnapped with this Toyota Prius.

Al SeibLos Angeles Times

called “inhumane” condi-

tions, Warren’s letter noted.

The letter also cites a

Time magazine article that

describes the detainment of

9-year-old U.S. citizen Julia

Isabel Amparo Medina for

about 32 hours in March

2018.

She was on her way to

school from Tijuana to San

Ysidro, Calif.

Though she showed her

passport to officials at the

border crossing, “CBP offi-

cers simply claimed she did

not closely enough resemble

the photograph on her

card,” Warren’s letter states.

“To the extent that CBP

and ICE are systematically

detaining U.S. citizens

under similar circum-

stances, it would represent a

and Border Protection at a

checkpoint in Falfurrias on

June 27 while on his way to a

college soccer tryout.

The Border Patrol

claimed that Galicia’s docu-

ments were fake, even when

given “additional paper-

work corroborating that he

is a U.S. citizen,” according

to the letter.

After three weeks, Cus-

toms and Border Protection

transferred Galicia into Im-

migration and Customs En-

forcement custody, the let-

ter states. Reports say Gali-

cia was detained for almost a

month.

He was released to family

members on July 23, having

lost 26 pounds in custody

and having endured what he

severe and unacceptable use

of power and authority,” the

senator wrote.

In her letter, Warren

points to a 2018 study by the

CATO Institute, a Washing-

ton-based libertarian think

tank, that found Immigra-

tion and Customs Enforce-

ment had asked jails in

Texas hundreds of times be-

tween 2006 and 2017 to hold

U.S. citizens so that the

agency could pick them up.

Warren also asked what

procedures the agencies

“have in place regarding the

use of racial profiling,” and

how much money has been

paid in settlements in the

last five years to U.S. citizens

who have been “wrongly ar-

rested and/or detained by

ICE and CBP.”

PRESIDENTIALhopeful Elizabeth Warren’s letter cited a Times report that

border agencies detained hundreds of citizens, some for “months or even years.”

Brendan SmialowskiAFP/Getty Images

Warren seeks investigation

into detention of citizens

[Detention,from B1]