June 28, 2021
Ozone Wallace during a March 2021 YouTube podcast with the New Black Panther Party (NBPP)
ADL’s Center on Extremism has linked Othal Toreyanne Resheen Wallace (also known as: O-Zone Wallace), the man arrested and accused of fatally shooting Daytona Beach Officer Jason Raynor on June 23, to several extremist groups.
On June 26, following a 56-hour manhunt, multiple law enforcement agencies were involved in the arrest of Wallace just outside of Atlanta, Georgia.
Wallace has been charged with first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer and faces the death penalty following the fatal shooting of Jason Raynor, an officer with the Daytona Beach, Florida, police department. Raynor died from his injuries on August 17, 2021, 55 days after the shooting. According to the Daytona Beach Police Department, the shooting occurred after Officer Raynor—who was on “proactive patrol” investigating a “suspicious incident”—approached Wallace as he sat in a vehicle on the evening of June 23. A released segment from Raynor’s body-camera video shows that the interaction between Raynor and Wallace turned into a physical struggle which was followed by the sound of a gunshot.
Three days later, police conducted a search warrant of a property in DeKalb County, Georgia, and allegedly found Wallace hiding in a treehouse armed with an arsenal of weapons and ammunition. According to Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young, the property is affiliated with the Not F*cking Around Coalition (NFAC), a paramilitary group that advocates for Black liberation and separatism. Chief Young also said that after his arrest, Wallace stated, “You guys know who I am. You know what I’m capable of, and it could have been a lot worse.”
Ties to Black Nationalism
In 2020, Wallace participated in several events organized by the NFAC. Led by John F. Johnson (also known as: Grand Master Jay), NFAC is best known for holding armed marches protesting racial inequality and police brutality.
Ozone Wallace Facebook image posted in September 2020.
In early 2021, Wallace appears to have broken ties with NFAC and founded “Black Nation,” a group that combined the militant style of the NFAC with Black Hebrew Israelite (BHI) ideology. BHI is a fringe religious faith whose adherents believe that they are the true Israelites and that the Twelve Tribes of Israel are people of color. According to one report, a spokeswoman from NFAC claimed Wallace had been kicked out of the group in January.
In the days following the shooting, the severed relationship between Wallace and NFAC surfaced online. For instance, on June 24, “Faiya Staar” tweeted in response to a post about Wallace saying that the two of them had been expelled from the NFAC. “Faiya Staar” wrote: “This is my Haitian brother “OZONE”, we were security for “Skam Master Spray”, [a reference to Grand Master Jay] wen we were part of the NFAC…Wen “Skam Master” lied on us saying we were informants & we out tu get him, we were kicked out.”
After Wallace’s arrest, on June 27, one supporter made a “Free Ozone” Instagram post and confirmed that Ozone had left the NFAC and “became a panther and then started his own style of Black nation as an ISRAELITE KING.”
On March 19, 2021, as the leader of the “Black Nation,” Wallace organized an armed demonstration at the Douglas County Sheriff’s office to bring attention to the controversial suicide investigation of Stephen Styles, a Black man who was found dead hanging from a tree in Winston, Georgia. Members of the New Black Panther Party (NBPP), one of the most racist and antisemitic groups in the United States, answered Wallace’s call and showed up for the demonstration.
Two days later, on March 21, Wallace appeared in a YouTube video podcast with the NBPP where he chatted with members of the NBPP about the Styles case while alluding to his BHI faith and the Black Nation. During the video, Wallace waved several firearms and referred to police as pigs and spoke about showing up “with guns loaded ready to let them [the police] understand we are willing to do what it takes to get justice.” He also explained to listeners: “You have to understand that you have to strike fear in the mind of the pig. You have to strike fear! You have to cast that upon them from your God to theirs.”
Screen shot from NBPP LIVE YouTube video streamed live on March 21, 2021.
On June 25, while the manhunt for Wallace was still underway, the NBPP posted a YouTube video podcast titled “NBPP LIVE! HANDS OFF OZONE, TRUTH OF A COURAGEOUS BLACK NATION WARRIOR.” During the video NBPP National Chair Krystal Muhammad said that the NBPP had been “rocking and rolling” with Wallace ever since they met him while fighting for justice for Stephen Styles in Douglasville, Georgia. Muhammad went on to say that after the group participated in the May 2021 march in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Wallace officially announced that not only was he the founder of the “Black Nation, a formation he was coordinating and commanding,” but that he was becoming a member of the New Black Panther Party.
Also, according to a report by Heavy, Malik Zulu Shabazz, the racist and antisemitic former leader of the New Black Panther Party (NBPP) and current head of Black Lawyers for Justice (BLJ), made a now-deleted Facebook post on June 15 that welcomed O-Zone Wallace to the NBPP and predicted that Wallace would be “instrumental in the rebuilding” of the group.
Black Hebrew Israelite Ideology
Wallace regularly used language and references consistent with the BHI movement, a fringe religious movement that rejects widely accepted definitions of Judaism and asserts that people of color are the true children of Israel. Not all BHI organizations are extremist, and it’s unclear whether Wallace held extreme BHI beliefs.
During the March 21 podcast with members of the NBPP, Wallace repeatedly referred to himself and his associates as “the children of the most high [God].” While speaking about an elderly Black woman who wore a mask because of COVID-19 he said, “they got in our elder’s head that the corona is really after them, which it’s after the pigs and the Edomites anyway!” BHI believers commonly refer to white people and white Jews as “Edomites” or descendants of “Esau” and biblical enemies of Jacob (Israel).
Toward the end of the podcast Wallace said, “Every chance we get, we pray against the white devil. Wanna know why? Because we only want to see each other benefit. I don’t pray to see them benefit. F*ck them! We pray against them nations because they pray against us. Our God wants to overrule everything they stand for…and we pray to Yahweh hard.”
The introduction of a now deleted Facebook profile with the username Ozone Wallace read, “I Am A Child Of The Most High. Qam Yasharahla [arise Israel].”
Using similar language, a woman claiming to be Wallace’s wife on Instagram, posted images of what appears to be Wallace and wrote, “I told you I will fight to the end of the revolution with you… together we will fulfill the purpose of THE MOST HIGH GOD YAHWEH!!!!!.” The post included BHI hashtags such as kingofIsrael, tribeofjudah and qamyasharahla.
Instagram post by “cre8ing_dreams” on June 24.
The woman also posted videos in which she discussed her and Wallace’s faith and shared an Instagram post from the now deleted account of “OzoneDread” and commented “#OthalWallace is a Righteous King chosen by The Most High Qam Yasharahla.” She also “followed” several Israel United in Christ (IUIC) Instagram accounts. IUIC is an international BHI organization that embraces and promotes extremist teachings of BHI ideology.
