The Ohio-based leader of a black separatist militia has been charged with several federal gun crimes in relation to his attendance of the Breonna Taylor riots in Louisville, Kentucky last summer.
A grand jury indicted John “Grandmaster Jay” Johnson, the leader of the “Not F***ing Around Coalition” (NFAC) Wednesday on “one count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers or employees and one count of brandishing a firearm in relation to a crime of violence,” first reported by The Courier-Journal.
The 57-year-old was arrested at his home in West Chester, Ohio in December and made an initial court appearance in Kentucky. He was out of jail awaiting the results of the grand jury.
“Johnson also faces five counts of first-degree wanton endangerment in Jefferson District Court in connection with the same actions alleged in the federal case,” according to The Courier-Journal.
He is accused of brandishing a semi-automatic rifle at police officers, an FBI agent, and a Secret Service agent during the Taylor riots. Taylor was shot and killed by Louisville Metro Police officers during a drug bust at her boyfriend’s apartment last spring.
According to a criminal complaint, police reported “six to eight heavily armed individuals” coalescing near a parking structure. The police went to the roof of the parking structure, and were “blinded by a light which they shortly thereafter determined was a flashlight mounted to the rifle being aimed at them by Johnson.”
That action led to the charges.
He has been ordered to surrender the firearm allegedly used in the commission of the crime, and ammunition for it.
NFAC is not just a militia, but a black nationalist group whose explicit goal is to build a black-only nation.
“We need our own home. We need our own culture. We need our own money,” Johnson said in an interview with the Cincinnati Inquirer in January. “We need our own military. We need to be able to determine our own destiny. So when you kill one of us, you got to deal with our grief.”
The group, sometimes derided as the “Negligent Discharge Coalition,” has a reputation for accidentally shooting and injuring people at the protests and riots it attends, which has happened on several occasions.
Three people were injured in such an incident during the Taylor riots.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to dabroscareports@gmail.com.