DETROIT — Eric Mark-Matthew Allport, the anti-government extremist hailed as a martyr by the Boogaloo movement, was shot and killed by FBI agents two years ago, steps away from a fully automatic machine gun and a mobile arsenal after vowing to kill law enforcement officers, court records show.
The man who built the machine gun, Ypsilanti resident Danny Jo Thompson, 30, will be sentenced Tuesday in federal court in a case that describes him as a Boogaloo supporter who voiced violent rhetoric and who knowingly provided an illegal, deadly weapon to someone eager to kill police officers.
Documents filed in Thompson's case, made public Monday, chronicle the roots of a domestic terrorism investigation that spanned at least three states and ended Oct. 2, 2020, in a Texas Roadhouse parking lot in Madison Heights with FBI agents shooting and killing Allport.
"Thompson and Allport said over and over and over again that they wanted to shoot a police officer — and not for any specific reason: just because they were officers," Assistant U.S. Attorney Hank Moon wrote in a government sentencing memorandum.
"Allport got his wish," Moon added.
The Allport shooting, which is still under review, happened five days before investigators arrested Boogaloo supporters and alleged militia members accused of plotting to kidnap and kill Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
FBI officials have not revealed the full circumstances around the Allport shooting and investigation. The Oakland County medical examiner's office said Allport died of multiple gunshot wounds and classified his death as a homicide, but officials have refused multiple public records requests from The Detroit News seeking a full copy of his autopsy report.
Federal court records, however, provide the government's brief justification for the shooting and a backstory to a domestic terrorism investigation that led to Thompson and Allport, 43, a convicted felon who played a minor role in the infamous Ruby Ridge standoff, one of the darkest chapters in federal law enforcement history.
The Thompson case — everything from the indictment to the plea agreement he reached with prosecutors and sentencing memos — were unavailable in the online federal court database due to an apparent computer problem until Monday when The News requested access.
Thompson is portrayed as Allport's friend, a dog trainer who helped acquire, build and test-fire a fully automatic machine gun for Allport.
"To make matters worse, Thompson armed Allport with the machine gun knowing that Allport was a felon and that Allport harbored extremely violent, anti-law enforcement views — views that Allport regularly shared with Thompson," Moon wrote.
Prosecutors have requested a 33-month prison sentence. U.S. District Judge Judith Levy will sentence Thompson on Tuesday afternoon in federal court in Ann Arbor.
Thompson deserves probation, his lawyer, William Amadeo, wrote in a sentencing memo. He portrayed Thompson as an entrepreneur and dog trainer who overcame an unstable upbringing and alcoholism.
"Danny Jo Thompson is an asset to our community," the lawyer wrote. "He give (sic) back to our community in his business, he has overcome addiction and other than this isolated incident, he has put others first."
The probe dates to May 2020 when the FBI opened a domestic terrorism investigation of Boogaloo members in Kansas and Oklahoma. The investigation soon led to Thompson and Allport.
Allport was a convicted felon who served an 11-year prison sentence for shooting at two police officers before relocating to Michigan and opening a dog-training business.
On Facebook, Allport and Thompson identified themselves as followers of the Boogaloo, a loosely organized movement of supporters who believe the country is broken and that a second civil war is looming.
Allport and Thompson "combined their love of firearms with their hatred of law enforcement, playing off each other and pushing one another towards violence. Towards shooting a law enforcement officer," Moon wrote.
In one undated message to Thompson, Allport prophesied what would happen if he ran into a law enforcement officer.
“I just rode home with the AR in my lap. Like f--- it. If I get pulled over, theres only one way its gonna go down," Allport wrote. "Might well drive at peak freedom and light up em up out the gate of I get pulled over.”
In another message, Allport shared a picture of weapons stored in his truck.
"Hahaha you willing to die today?" Thompson wrote. "Because I sure as f--- am lol."
Less than five months before Allport was killed, Thompson sent an image of a law enforcement officer in riot gear being shot in the head.
"Speak to cops in a language they understand," the caption read.
The communications indicate Allport was breaking a federal law preventing convicted felons from possessing firearms.
Guns and violent imagery also were constants in Allport's life.
Allport was born in Michigan but spent his teenage years in rural Idaho with his mother, Judy, and father, Bill Grider. In the early 1990s, they lived in a home near Ruby Ridge, a mountainous area 30 miles south of the Canadian border.
Their neighbor was Randy Weaver, a white separatist who moved his family to the remote mountaintop. The family included wife Vicki and 14-year-old son Sammy, who was the same age as Allport in 1992.
Allport and his parents were friends with the Weavers, occasionally delivering groceries to the family's remote cabin, sometimes in a homemade burlap sack strapped to the Grider family dog Rebel, according to news coverage at the time.
Deputy U.S. Marshals enlisted the Griders to help deliver messages to Randy Weaver about a court date for a pending firearms charge.
Weaver refused to surrender, leading to an 11-day siege with federal agents in August 1992. During the siege, Sammy Weaver and a deputy U.S. Marshal were killed during a shootout and an FBI sharpshooter killed Vicki Weaver.
"He got caught up with the drama and was not happy with all of that," Allport's business partner, Rachel Charnley, told The News. "Obviously, any sort of event like that would be a major impact on anyone's life."
The years after Ruby Ridge were filled with trouble for Allport. At 17, he was convicted of aggravated robbery and later moved to Fort Collins, Colorado.
In November 2002, a decade after the Ruby Ridge shootings, Allport was charged with assault and other charges, and later convicted, stemming from an incident in Colorado during which Allport shot at two officers during a traffic stop.
Freed in 2014, Allport returned to Michigan and started K9 Heights Dog Training in a brick Tudor-style house near Lincoln Avenue and I-75 in Madison Heights.
The violence at Ruby Ridge was still present in Allport's life, according to federal prosecutors.
In one message to Thompson, Allport shared a photo of himself and his parents in Ruby Ridge.
“F--- these (expletives). (And) f--- any motherf----- who thinks they know who the f--- I and thinks this s--- is extreme," Allport wrote. "B----, I havent even gotten warmed up ... I went from there to straight up domestic terrorism.”
Allport's and Thompson's Facebook accounts provided a trail of evidence that they were involved in building an illegal machine gun, prosecutors wrote.
Prosecutors say Facebook evidence showed Thompson knew Allport was a felon but bought assault rifle parts for him anyway. The posts also showed both built and tested fully-automatic machine guns.
Thompson acquired components in September 2019 that let him convert AR-style rifles into fully automatic machine guns, prosecutors said. Thompson also lied on the form saying both firearms were for him.
Prosecutors cited one conversation between Thompson and Allport the day the rifle components were acquired.
“So you’re cool with buying one for me?" Allport asked. "I don’t want to push you man.”
“Yeah I don’t mind!" Thompson wrote. "The way I see number 1 I believe in it and trust you. 2 you could buy this from anyone very easily. Ya know what I mean?"
The duo spent the next month converting the machine guns and exchanging photos of the firearms, according to the government.
Allport is shown in one video from late October 2019 firing the machine gun while another movie showed Thompson and friends firing the fully automatic weapon.
The investigation culminated Oct. 2, 2020, almost 14 miles north of downtown Detroit.
FBI agents tracked Allport to a post office on John R. north of 12 Mile in Madison Heights, near the Texas Roadhouse. They tried to arrest him as he left the building, prosecutors wrote.
"When agents approached him, Allport pulled out a gun and started shooting as he ran from the agents," Moon wrote. "Allport shot one agent in the thigh: agents returned fire killing Allport."
Allport died near his truck.
"Inside agents found the fully automatic machine gun that Thompson procured for him, a shotgun, another pistol, and hundreds and hundreds of rounds of ammunition for the weapons," Moon wrote.
"Some of the ammunition was in extended, high-capacity magazines," the prosecutor added. "Other rounds — including ammunition for his machine gun — were in double stacked magazines: magazines taped together to allow for faster changing of an empty magazine. Double stacked magazines allow someone with a machine gun to fire even more rounds in an even shorter period."
The shootout prevented FBI agents from immediately searching Thompson's home.
"Thompson learned about Allport’s death during the delay," Moon wrote. "Consequently, agents did not find his machine gun when they executed a search warrant at Thompson’s house several hours after the shootout."
In March 2021, five months after Allport was killed, prosecutors indicted Thompson. He was charged with making false statements when purchasing a firearm, possessing an illegal machine gun and aiding and abetting Allport’s illegal machine gun possession.
After being charged, Thompson's lawyer gave investigators the rifle component Thompson modified to fire as a machine gun.
He pleaded guilty in June to the gun possession and aiding and abetting Allport.
"Imagine what would have happened if Allport made it to his truck, where his fully automatic machine gun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition were waiting?" the prosecutor wrote. "How many people could he have shot then? How many agents would he have shot? How many innocent bystanders? All because Thompson gave him a machine gun."
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