A man who tried to march with Las Vegas police at a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020 has pleaded guilty in federal court to false impersonation of an officer.
Zachary Sanns was heavily armed with a visible Nazi tattoo when he was spotted at a protest along Fremont and Seventh streets in May 2020, the summer when multiple Black Lives Matter protests were held in Las Vegas and across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer.
He wore plain clothes, a tactical vest, a ballistic helmet, a balaclava covering his face and night-vision goggles. Clipped to his gun belt was a Glock pistol with an extended magazine, a Taser and pepper spray. He was dressed “nearly identical” to plain clothes local and federal officers, according to a federal criminal complaint.
Sanns carried an AR-15 rifle with a holographic sight and a magnifier, “similar to how law enforcement and military carry their rifles when not in use but can be quickly accessed,” according to the complaint.
He pleaded guilty on June 23 to false impersonation of a federal officer, court records show. He could face up to three years in prison for the charge, according to the plea agreement.
Prosecutors wrote in court records that Sanns was wearing a Department of Homeland Security patch on his vest, with the words “federal agent” on the back. When a Metropolitan Police Department officer asked if Sanns was a federal agent, Sanns said he was, and joined other officers “awaiting response commands,” according to the guilty plea agreement.
At one point, Sanns walked behind a line of officers known as the “skirmish line,” or a barrier between protesters and a command post, court records show.
The night of the protest on May 30, 2022, a Las Vegas Review-Journal photographer posted images of Sanns on social media showing tattoos of an “SS” bolt logo and “0351” on his upper left arm.
The tattoos referenced a U.S. Marine Corps special infantry, and is a “discouraged symbol used by some Marine Corps Scout Snipers,” according to the complaint. The “SS” letters were in the same font used by Nazi SS units.
Sanns served in the U.S. Marine Corps from January 2011 to April 2016 and worked as a Department of Defense contractor for the Navy from Dec. 2, 2019, to Dec. 23, 2019, according to the complaint.
After the protest, Sanns made a complaint to Metro’s internal affairs bureau, alleging that officers swore at him during the rally and “had blown kisses to his wife,” who is a law enforcement officer, according to a criminal complaint. But an investigation showed that Sanns lied about what happened at the protest. When an officer called him to say the investigation was closed, Sanns “became agitated and irate” and claimed he worked for the CIA.
In a later interview with police, Sanns admitted to being at the Black Lives Matter protest and said he was an “off-the-books contractor for a federal agency.”
A sentencing hearing for Sanns is scheduled for Sept. 22, court records show.
