RIVERSIDE (September 19)– A Northern California man and former soldier was sentenced on Thursday to 24 months in federal prison for posting online videos of himself threatening to kill multiple military personnel at Fort Irwin.
Christian Ernest Beyer, 42, of Petaluma, was sentenced by United States District Judge Suzanne S. Sykes.
Beyer pleaded guilty on June 28 to one count of sending threats by interstate communication. Initially, Beyer had been charged with interstate threats, a crime that carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison
“Mr. Beyer’s desire to carry out violence against members of our military and their families led to a federal prison sentence,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. “Our military servicemembers deserve better and we will continue to prosecute those who seek to harm public servants.”
“Today’s sentence is a stern reminder that anyone who harms innocent military members and their families will serve jail time,” said Akil Davis, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force will continue to investigate all threats against those who bravely serve their country.”
Beyer enlisted in the Army in August 2000 and served as an armor crewman.
Beyer was was a member of the U.S. Army in good standing for nearly 21 years, having achieved the rank of master sergeant while serving in Korea.
During his service, he deployed to Iraq three times, including during the opening days of Operation Iraqi Freedom in April 2003. He also deployed to Kuwait twice.
It was after he returned to the United States from duty oversees that his life appears to have careened out of control.
Beyer was arrested at Fort Irwin on April 26, 2021 as the result of a domestic disturbance in which he was accused of pushing his wife and barricading himself in his home with an unregistered firearm.
This incident resulted in his arrest. On the basis of that arrest and subsequent behavior in the late summer and fall of 2021, in which he on multiple occasions was extremely intoxicated, heavily intoxicated, insubordinate, confrontational and belligerent, he was court-martialed. As a result of that tribunal, Beyer in Augut 2022 was found guilty of four violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, including assault with the intent to inflict bodily harm and domestic assault. He was reduced in rank from a master sergeant (E-8) to sergeant first class (E-7), confined to the stockade for 45 days and made subject to forfeiture of $250 in pay month for 4 months.
He left the Army in March 2023.
Beyer was embittered about the manner in which his military career ended. He made multiple threatening statements aimed at other members of the military who had implicated him and then further launched himself into a trajectory of vitriol toward both other members of the military and law enforcement officers.
Beyer made direct threats against the commanding general of the base, Brigadier General Curtis Taylor, the chief of police for the post, other base police officers and a senior enlisted soldier.
Beyer’s maniacal descent worsened in October 2023, manifesting in the acts for which he was indicted.
On October 28, an intoxicated Beyer was arrested in Mendocino County on charges of disorderly conduct and jailed. He was released the next day. Over the next 48 hours he made a slew of videos, including the threatening ones that were at the center of the indictment that followed. On October 29, 2023, he took a break from recording the YouTube videos long enough to entangle himself in an altercation with a group of elderly individuals in a neighborhood other than his own after walking away from his vehicle.
According to court documents, on October 29 and 30, 2023, Beyer published several videos on his personal YouTube page. One of those videos, prosecutors said, contained multiple threats directed at four victims and their families. The victims were specific military personnel at Fort Irwin, according to federal prosecutors.
In the other videos Beyer posted in the same timeframe, he comes across as deeply mentally disturbed, manifesting, in psychological parlance, either or both tachylalia or tachylogia, known to the layman as motormouth, in which he incessantly dwells upon, accurately or inaccurately, having been wronged by his military colleagues or law enforcement officers who dealt with him, or both, his syntax peppered with profanities.
“Kill them, all of them,” Beyer states in one video. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. And if one of you wants to do it, go for it, dude. Die a fucking hero.”
In a video posed on October 30, 2023, Beyer says, “I will fucking come and hunt you,” with regard to individuals stationed at Fort Irwin.
Beyer at one point stated he was prepared to shoot his way onto Fort Irwin and kill specific targets unless they resigned from the Army.
“You have like two days or I’m coming myself, and you know I can fucking get there,” Beyer said in a video. “I will come there with guns.”
The indictment cites a video in which Beyer says, “I’m calling out the people that forced me out,” a reference to four specific soldiers stationed at Fourt Irwin. “Go ahead and fucking hang it up or you’re harboring those police like you’ve already done before and I will fucking come and hunt you.”
Beyer’s threats were credible, according to prosecutors, who said Army officials pointedly concerned that Beyer had knowledge of “how to access the Fort Irwin installation through unofficial trails and/or means and [knew ways in which] to circumvent official entry/access points.”
In another video posted the same day, Boyer stated, “If we don’t take up arms against the fuckin’ tyrants of this country, which is the entire law enforcement fucking from the goddamn top of the FBI to the fuckin’ first-day beat cop is the enemy of this fucking country, and if you guys can’t see that, you’re missing out, right?”
Immediately after the video was posted, U.S. authorities, including those in both military and civilian branches of the government, embarked on a manhunt for Beyer, one that was centered in Mendocino County, where he was believed to be located.
In Ukiah, he allegedly brandished a knife in an incident before he was apprehended, and then took flight, nearly running down a resident while fleeing in a car, then evading sheriff’s deputies, K-9 units, a California Highway Patrol airplane and other authorities as he approached Hopland.
He was ultimately taken into federal custody, and has remained incarcerated since November 2023.
The FBI investigated this matter as part of its Los Angeles Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Assistant United States Attorney Matt Coe-Odess of the General Crimes Section prosecuted this case.