Gabriel Agard-Berryhill identified as Portland bomber after his grandmother Karla Fox turns her own grandson in after recognizing an ‘Icons’ vest she’d bought him.
An 18 year old teenager has been arrested with the bombing of a Portland federal courthouse after his grandmother tipped off police.
Gabriel ‘Rico’ Sebastian Agard-Berryhill, 18, appeared in court in the Oregon city on Friday, where he was charged with arson. The grandson faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Agard-Berryhill arrested after his Trump-supporting grandmother Karla Fox saw footage of Tuesday night’s attack, and tweeted that her grandson was behind it. In her tweet, the relative identified her grandson as the alleged perpetrator after recognizing the vest she had bought him which footage showed him wearing during the purported attack.
‘This is my only grandson, I love him to death, and didn’t know he was going to do such a bad thing, I had been posting several things about the antifa and BLM, he knows I am against those riots bigtime…he chose his poison,’ she tweeted, from the username @Trumpsgirl2020.
The grandson’s arrest comes as Donald Trump continues to ‘strongly condemn’ the Portland protests, which emerged after the May 25 killing of George Floyd and have worsened since Trump sent federal troops into the Democrat-controlled city.
Rioter Gabriel Agard-Berryhill, 18, Arrested by U.S. Marshals After Being Outed by Grandma https://t.co/tF9UAxnBQV via @getongab
— Super Rams 🐏 (@JarrodJf) July 31, 2020
Icons protester
Agard-Berryhill was among protesters in Portland who allegedly resorted to violence on Tuesday night.
Footage on social media captured a loud bang and then flames emerging from the building.
Security cameras filmed the attack, which happened at approximately 11:50pm at the Hatfield Federal Courthouse.
A figure wearing a vest bearing the word ‘Icons’ threw a ‘large incendiary object,’ which entered the building’s portico area, prosecutors said, and landed near plywood sheeting affixed to the building’s facade.
A few seconds later, the object exploded, igniting a fire near the building’s main entrance.
Police said the explosion could be ‘heard and felt more than a block away.’
Agard-Berryhill was identified by his vest; his grandmother’s tweeted and the review of the vest she posted online.
Say his name: Gabriel Agard-Berryhill, 18yo https://t.co/tmSIBWzZA3
— David S (@daveinsac) August 1, 2020
$26 non-bulletproof vest
‘I got this for my grandson who’s a protestor downtown, he uses it every night and says its does the job,’ she wrote, posting a photo of Agard-Berryhill in his new vest and giving the clothing five stars.
Fox told the New York Post that she bought the $26 non-bulletproof vest to protect him.
‘I bought the vest for him after he found one online after getting hit with rubber bullets the night before at the protest,’ she said.
She said her grandson is currently on probation for a felony conviction when he was a minor.
She said he spent the past two years at Rogue Valley Youth Correctional Facility in southern Oregon and recently talked of turning his life around, and getting a job at Amazon.
Fox said that when she last saw her grandson, last week, he said that he was peacefully protesting and ‘protected a girl.’
Grandmother appalled
‘I believed all his stories,’ Fox said.
‘He said he was just hanging out at Riot Ribs [an anarchist food co-op] and doing peaceful things.
‘I don’t condone any of this. I am amazed at all of these events.’
She told the tabloid that her last communication via text with her grandson was when he asked her to delete the photo of him wearing the vest, and to remove her comment about the purchase.
She says she first became aware of the bombing video on Wednesday when a family member contacted her with links to Twitter.
Agard-Berryhill reportedly told the tabloid he did not intend to damage the building or hurt anyone.
‘The device I’ve been accused of allegedly throwing was allegedly given to me by an unknown protestor with full face coverings,’ he wrote in a text message.
‘I was allegedly told that it was a strobe firework that wouldn’t damage the building or harm anyone around it.’
Agard-Berryhill has been released without bail, pending his trial.
