What we know about NFAC, the extremist group linked to accused cop-shooter Othal Wallace? – Daytona Beach News-Journal

Frank Fernandez & Mark Harper| The Daytona Beach News-Journal

Othal Wallace, accused of shooting a Daytona Beach Police Officer, arrested

Othal Wallace is charged with attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer in the shooting of Daytona Beach Police Officer Jason Raynor.

Frank Fernandez, The Daytona Beach News-Journal

Before suspect Othal O-Zone Wallace shot Daytona Beach Police Officer Jason Raynor, Wallace pulled the power cord on the officers body camera, according toVolusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood.

The move, Chitwood said in an interview Saturday, is just one of the tactics taught by the NFAC, the Not F---ing Around Coalition, a Black nationalist militia that has made its presence known at marches across the South starting in 2020.

Wallace's social media accounts indicated his connection with NFAC. Those accounts have been taken down. He was captured early Saturday morning in a tree house on rural property outside of Atlanta, Georgia that was owned by someone affiliated with NFAC, according to police.

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READ THE POLICE STATEMENT: Othal Wallace captured 'hiding in a tree house'

Some extremism experts and Chitwood say theNFAC is another example of a group like the Proud Boysthat threatens the nation's peace.

Numerous Proud Boys have been charged with taking part in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6. One of the self-identified leaders of the Proud Boys, Joseph Biggs, lived in Volusia County just outside of Ormond Beach. He is now in jail awaiting trial for charges related to the Jan. 6 riot.

NFAC's leader, meanwhile, has been indicted for pointing an assault-style weapon at several federal officers at a protest in Louisville, Kentucky, on Sept. 4, 2020. According to a criminal complaint, John F. Johnson aka Grand Master Jay also took to YouTube to urgeNFAC members to attack and kill law enforcement and their families.Johnson urged members to dismantle the body cameras of police they intended to assault.

In an interview with NBC's Morgan Radford last March, Johnson said the NFAC was growing "by leaps and bounds." He said its goals are self-defense and to create a Black ethnostate.

The NFAC was born out of the last four years under the Trump administration. The deterioration of racial relations in this country," he said. "It means that you are preparing yourself to defend yourself.

He called violence a "last option," but added the United States was built on violence as an option.

J.J. MacNab, a fellow in the Center on Extremism at George Washington University, said left-wing militias are "the newest entrant to the militant world," in written testimony to the U.S. House Subcommittee on Intelligence and Counterterrorism in July 2020.

This includes small groups such as the John Brown Gun Club / Redneck Revolt and the Socialist Rifle Club to the newly formed Latino Rifle Association and the NFAC black militia that made its debut in Georgia on the 4th of July," MacNab wrote. "To date, armed left-wing militias and gun clubs have generally arisen in response to the perceived threat from armed right-wing militias, Three Percenters, and Oath Keepers, but some express strong anti-police and anti-government beliefs.

Chitwood sees no difference in the threat posed by militia groups, left or right.

I think that this is a grave crisis that's facing America right now, because any extremist militia group, I don't care whether they're white, Black or Hispanic, whatever they are, they are a danger to society and they are a danger to democracy," Chitwood said in an interview.

And what we see is we see people collecting around them. We saw it with the Proud Boys, Chitwood said. President (Trump) telling the Proud Boys to stand down. When you you're getting that kind of attention from the president of the United States, it kind of signals that these extremist groups are somehow part of mainstream society.And they are not. They are not.

Chitwood said that the NFAC was formed in response to white supremacist groups.

As goofy and as squirrely as their ideas are, their ideas are no more squirrely (than)the Aryan Nation or the skinheads or the neo-Nazis. They are just as dangerous, Chitwood said.

He added thatall the groups share a hatred for law enforcement and a hatred for the rule of law.

Thats the commonality between these extremist groups, Chitwood said.

President Joe Biden has said that white supremacy is the most lethal threat to the homeland today," and experts say the development of groups like the NFAC is a response.

Chitwood said that the NFAC was formed in response to white extremists who marched at the "Unite the Right" rallyin Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017and similar events.

More recent police shootings of Black people, and George Floyd's 2020 murderwhen a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than 9 minutes, have contributed to the formation and radicalization of NFAC members.

I think its a combination of things but I think that is one of the (reasons), Chitwood said. It was formed, from what we are reading, the intel weare getting,in response to Charlottesville and some of the other things that have occurred but clearly the police shootings also played a role in that group being formed.

Chitwood said suchgroups train in camps to defeat police tactics and one of the things they are taughtis to take the body cameras from police officers to get rid of evidence. He said that Wallace partially followed that tactic before shooting Raynor.

It doesn't end because we cut it,: Chitwood said. It ends because the power cord is taken from the camera so therefore the camera couldnt record anymore. He methodically in my opinion dismantled the camera before he shot Jason.

Wallace interrupted the power source to the camera, Chitwood said.

All these moves are practiced and rehearsed, Chitwood said. Extremism against law enforcement isnt anything new.

In the 1960s, there were a number of assassinations of police officers. Chitwoodsaid he remembers an incident in which two Black Panthers shot a pair of Philadelphia police officers. He said the two Black Panthers had gunned down two Washington D.C. police officers before they were approached by the Philadelphia police.

Social media now gives extremists groups more power to recruit, the sheriff said.

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What we know about NFAC, the extremist group linked to accused cop-shooter Othal Wallace? - Daytona Beach News-Journal