(KRON) – A Petaluma resident has been charged with a felony offense for allegedly posting online videos of himself threatening to kill multiple military personnel at the Fort Irwin army base in San Bernardino County, the Justice Department announced on Thursday.
Christian Ernest Beyer, 41, was charged with making interstate threats. A federal magistrate judge in San Francisco ordered Beyer to be jailed without bond.
Beyer was an Army veteran formerly stationed at Fort Irwin who was court-martialed in 2021 for assault.
Beyer posted a YouTube video, using an account in his own name, threatening to kill specific military personnel at Fort Irwin, according to an affidavit filed with the complaint on Oct. 30.
“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,” Beyer allegedly said in a YouTube video posted on Oct. 30.
On Oct. 30, Beyer allegedly was in an altercation with a group of elderly individuals after leaving his car in a neighborhood he did not live in Mendocino County. According to the United States Attorney’s Office Central District of California, Beyer allegedly brandished a knife at one of the elderly people, got in his car, drove away, then turned around and sped towards the group, driving his vehicle approximately 13 feet off the street at them. Beyer then sped away and drove to a parking lot, where local law enforcement confronted him, according to the affidavit. Beyer fled the scene in his car.
Interstate threats carry a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison. Beyer’s arraignment is expected to be in the coming weeks.
