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KENOSHA, Wisconsin — A Missouri man was found guilty Thursday of being involved in the 2020 Kenosha riots.
Michael Carmo, 42, of Hartsville, Missouri, will spend 64 months in federal prison for “unlawfully possessing a firearm despite a felony record.” He will also spend two years on supervised release after serving a prison sentence.
Earlier this year, Karmo filed a guilty plea.
According to court filings, Karmo was concerned with the turmoil in cities across the country following the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020.
“[A]All I care about is messing around with antifax and black life issues these days,” Carmo said in a text message to a friend.
He also indicated that he was driving around the United States to see where the riots were “most difficult.”
Then, in August 2020, Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old black man, was shot seven times in the back by a white police officer in Kenosha. The incident left Blake paralyzed from the waist down.
That’s when Carmo and a friend decided to drive from Missouri to the scene of the Kenosha riots on Aug. 31, 2020. .
Before leaving on August 31, 2020, Carmo took a photo of himself and a friend holding long guns and sent it to a woman in Iowa. He also sent her another photo of her firearm with a large barrel, calling this a “game change.” They stopped to see an Iowa woman and she became concerned. She then called the police, according to court filings.
When the FBI finally arrested Carmo and his friends on the Pleasant Prairie, they found an array of ammunition, weapons, and other items. This included an AR-15 assault rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun, two of his 9mm handguns, multiple high-capacity magazines, and more.
Authorities also found several videos on Karmo’s phone related to the incident. In it, Carmo talked about being on the streets “when the thugs come out.” In another article, he called the protesters “a mass of victims.”
He also detailed the firearms he brought with him and said he was ready to act if the police and the National Guard weren’t “handling their affairs.”
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