Michigan resident and Army veteran Steven Thurlow became the first known member of the Boogaloo movement to be charged with participating in the January 6th domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol, newly filed court documents show.

Thurlow was caught on CCTV footage inside the Senate side of the Capitol building wearing “wearing a black backpack, black watch cap, a camouflage colored jacket, gray pants, yellow scarf and white-rimmed sunglasses.”  The distinctive white-rimmed sunglasses made it easy to identify Thurlow as he walked through the Capitol.

In the FBI affidavit, photos Thurlow posted to his Facebook page around Christmas show him dressed in combat fatigues with a patch emblazoned with “BOOGALOO” across his chest.  The Boogaloo movement is one that espouses an impending civil war in the United States.  “The term is sometimes used by militia extremists and racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVE), who allude to it using shorthand such as ‘big igloo’ or ‘big luau’ and imagery such as igloos or Hawaiian shirts,” according to the affidavit. 

After the January 6th attack on the Capitol, Thurlow made various posts on his Facebook page mentioning the attack, but apparently became scared of law enforcement arresting participants, so he changed the name on the account to “Stephanie Danielle Thurlow.”  The URL for the account, however, still used the Facebook nomenclature of “steven.t.thurlow” and was attached to an email address Thurlow continued to use.