A former soldier was arrested Wednesday and accused of making online threats to kill specific military personnel at Fort Irwin Army base in Southern California, federal prosecutors said.
Christian Ernest Beyer, 41, of Petaluma, California, who was once stationed at Fort Irwin, is charged with interstate threats, according to a Thursday statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
Beyer, an Army veteran, was court martialed in 2021 for assault while stationed at Fort Irwin, prosecutors said.
He was arrested at his father’s Sonoma County home, prosecutors said.
Beyer, according to an affidavit filed with the complaint, on Monday posted a YouTube video, from an account in his own name, in which he threatened lives.
In the video, Beyer said he was “calling out the people that forced me out,” according to the affidavit. He then called out personnel by their names and said, “I will f—— come and hunt you, … I’m coming for you. I’m gonna kill your whole f—— family if they stay there,” the affidavit said.
Beyer is also alleged to have said in an online video posted that day: “I had a great…life and I will…die for what I believe in. If you come to…get me and you have a …uniform on, you’re a[n]…enemy and I will not look at you as anything else. I will…fight you ’til I take you down,” according to prosecutors.
On the same day Beyer was alleged to have made online threats, he allegedly also got into an altercation with a group of elderly people in Mendocino County. The incident began after Beyer parked his car in a neighborhood he did not live in, prosecutors said.
Beyer is first accused of pulling a knife on one of the elderly people, according to the affidavit. He then sped toward the group, prosecutors said, adding Beyer drove the vehicle about 13 feet off the street.
Beyer ended up driving to a parking lot, where he was confronted by local law enforcement, and then got out of his car and ran away, according to prosecutors. A manhunt ensued and Beyer was arrested.
A federal magistrate judge in San Francisco on Thursday ordered Beyer held in jail without bond, prosecutors said. He is expected to be arraigned in the upcoming weeks.
No lawyer was listed for Beyer in court documents. Beyer’s relatives could not be immediately reached Friday afternoon.
Making interstate threats carries a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison, prosecutors said.
