CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A U.S. Army soldier shared a racist, violent reason for joining the service on Instagram and engaged in online extremism while stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, according to federal investigators.
“I serve for combat experience so I’m more proficient in killing (racial slur),” Killian Mackeithan Ryan wrote about Black people on one of his five Instagram accounts, court documents filed in late August state.
With these accounts, investigators say Ryan messaged other accounts “associated with racially motivated extremism,” according to an affidavit.
Ryan’s online activities are detailed in the document supporting a criminal complaint, accusing him of providing a false statement to get a security clearance to serve as an active-duty Army member, investigators say.
He served in the Army as a fire support specialist, a job requiring a security clearance, until Aug. 26 when the FBI arrested him, a XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg spokesman told McClatchy News in a statement Monday.
The spokesman said Ryan was “separated for serious misconduct” and the Army cooperated with the FBI’s arrest of the soldier.
“The Army does not tolerate racism, extremism, or hatred in our ranks,” the spokesman added.
McClatchy News contacted Ryan’s attorney for comment Monday and was awaiting a response.
A Fayetteville police officer who works for the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force began investigating Ryan after he submitted a security clearance form containing a false statement about his biological father on May 15, 2020, the affidavit states.
On the form, Ryan wrote the name of his father and wrote in an optional section that he had not spoken with him in over a decade, court documents state. Ryan also added that his father was not on his birth certificate, investigators say.
The security clearance form is used in a background investigation that may involve examining one’s immediate family. The background check is used to determine if a national security job candidate is “reliable, trustworthy, of good conduct and character, and loyal to the U.S.,” according to the form.
Investigators say Ryan’s father is a convicted felon with a criminal history in Washington and California regarding drug violations and auto theft. Additionally, his father is accused of engaging in “racially motivated extremism” online, the affidavit states.
A legal process revealed Ryan’s five Instagram accounts had been communicating with his father’s account for the past 10 years when Ryan said he had not spoken with his father — further revealing that he lied on the form, according to the affidavit.
It was also discovered Ryan had been engaging with extremists on Instagram, similarly to his father.
Two of his accounts were linked to an email address beginning with “naziace1488,” court documents state.
The number 1488 is considered a numeric hate symbol used by white supremacists, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Fourteen represents a 14-word slogan of a future envisioned by white supremacists and 88 represents “Heil Hitler” — a salute to Nazi Germany leader Adolf Hitler — as the letter “H” appears eighth in the alphabet, the league says online.
Legal expert and lawyer Mark Zaid described the charge of providing a false statement against Ryan as “unique” in an interview with Rolling Stone, which first reported on the case.
“One of two things happened: either the government is taking a much stronger position on racist white nationalist extremists if they find them within the U.S. government, or something else happened where this individual really aggravated somebody personally,” Zaid told Rolling Stone.
At Fort Bragg, Ryan specifically served with the 2nd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery and the 1st Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, the base spokesman said. He did not go on any deployments.
“The Army prohibits military personnel from participating in extremist organizations and activities,” the spokesman added. “There is no place for extremism in the Army.”
In April 2021, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin spoke about measures combating extremism and ordered military service members “to work closer together and learn best practices from each other to ensure extremists do not get into the ranks,” according to the Defense Department.
Ryan’s arrest comes about a month after he was charged with impaired driving in an unrelated case while stationed at Fort Bragg, court records show.
The Army learned he was being investigated by the FBI earlier in 2022, the spokesman said.
———
