FBI Nationwide Alert: San Francisco Social Media Consultant Considered Armed, Dangerous

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a nationwide alert to law enforcement agencies in connection to a San Francisco man wanted for suspicion of explosives possession. Authorities consider him armed and dangerous.

According to FBI spokesman Peter Lee, the nationwide alert was issued regarding 42-year-old San Francisco social media consultant Ryan Kelly Chamberlain II, who was last seen wearing jeans and a dark blue hooded sweatshirt.

The FBI nationwide alert was issued following a search at Chamberlain’s apartment — located in the Russian Hill neighborhood in San Francisco — by several government agencies, including hazardous materials crews on Saturday.

During the search, both street and pedestrian traffic were blocked.

Lee didn’t share any more details about the FBI nationwide alert or what led to it on Sunday. However, the feds believe Chamberlain is acting alone. Lee told reporters during a press conference outside FBI headquarters:

“We believe he is alone in the vehicle but we just don’t know, again, where his ties or his network is so we ask that any members of the public be on the lookout for anyone that matches this man’s description.”

Brooke Wentz, Chamberlain’s boss at a music rights consultancy group, said she last spoke with the subject of the FBI’s nationwide alert on Friday, when he reminded her to deposit his paycheck in a new bank account.

Wentz says she is completely shocked to find out that her social media manager is a fugitive of the law and wanted by the FBI. She told The Associated Press that he “is a nice guy.”

Chamberlain’s boss said that she didn’t believe that he was living in the apartment raided by the FBI on the weekend, because when she mailed his paycheck in April he told her he would have to go to the building to collect it.

She also believes the man for whom the FBI issued a nationwide alert could have been in some financial trouble. Chamberlain allegedly told Wentz that his two friends — who were leasing the apartment — left unexpectedly and he had to come up with some money to pay for both renters.

“I wondered what kind of friends would do something like that? I tried to ask him about the situation but he was kind of evading my question,” Wentz said.

Randy Bramblett, another of Chamberlain’s acquaintances, says that when he lost his job in November, the man who is sought by FBI in their nationwide alert lost touch and stopped returning messages.

“I’ve never seen him be violent, ever, but I would definitely say that maybe emotionally and mentally he was a little unstable.” Bramblett said, adding that Chamberlain had worked for several years as a consultant on Democratic political campaigns.

The FBI is asking its agencies to be on the lookout for a white 2008 Nissan Altima with Texas or California license plates, but authorities are not sure where the man who is at the center of the nationwide alert is headed.

[Image provided via FBI]