Galesburg Reporter

A downstate man captured on video rioting in the streets in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd and later boasting it was the “best thing I ever did” has been sentenced to nearly nine years in federal prison.

Matthew Rupert, who encouraged others in Chicago and Minneapolis to join him as he engaged in his one-man crime spree, ultimately pleaded guilty to one count of arson in the Minnesota courtroom of U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel. The charge stemmed from him torching a Minneapolis Sprint store as he live-streamed the destruction.

“The video also depicts Rupert asking for lighter fluid before entering a boarded-up Sprint store located on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis,” U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement. “Rupert canvassed the store and eventually entered a backroom while telling others that he had located a store safe. Rupert and others then knocked several boxes into a pile on the ground. Rupert doused the pile of boxes with lighter fluid and then directed another individual—at the time a juvenile—to light the pile on fire. The store sustained significant damage as a result of the fire.”

In addition, Rupert is captured in a Facebook video “handing out artillery-shell fireworks, encouraging violence against law enforcement officers, actively damaging property, breaking into buildings and looting businesses.”

Through it all, Rupert bragged he was having the time of his life.

“What’s up ... mom,” he says while answering a phone call as part of the video. “We’re out here wreckin’ ‘em. I’m throwing my fireworks back.”

From there, it was back to Chicago, where he engaged in even more damage, much of which was likewise posted to Facebook. He was finally taken into custody by CPD on May 31 along with his 29-year-old brother. At the time of their apprehension, police reported finding homemade bombs in the car they were traveling in.

The Sun-Times reported a Facebook account linked to him with the post, “I’m going to Minneapolis tomorrow who coming only goons I’m renting hotel rooms.”

Soon after posting a video of himself passing out explosives in Minnesota, Rupert is believed to have returned to Chicago, where he posted a video of himself at the center of a crowd near Van Buren and Dearborn wearing an American flag bandana and a white baseball cap and shouting “let’s start a riot”