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He Shall Be Set Free
Phil Aguilar's brand of outlaw Christianity made him an evangelical powerhouse-and has law enforcement calling the pastor a criminal
Orange County Weekly/November 25, 2010
By Nick Schou
http://www.rickross.com/reference/setfree/setfree23.html
Phil Aguilar's tattoos are like the rings of a tree. They cover virtually every square inch of his skin, from his temple to his trousers, tracing his life in chronological order. The oldest one, spelled out in faded gray letters, reads, "El Friday," Aguilar's nickname in high school. "Friday was the headhunter, Robinson Crusoe's partner," Aguilar explains. "I always had this habit of starting fights, flicking cigarettes in people's faces, going after anybody who looked like they were having a nice time in life, so that's what my friends called me." Etched into one of Aguilar's shoulders is a portrait of a beautiful chola that he commissioned while in prison during the early 1970s. A close-up of the navel of an orange on Aguilar's elbow declared to inmates that he was from Newer tattoos include the Star of David and illustration of a rabbi Aguilar got on a 1982 trip to But it's Aguilar's most recent tattoo that is the most noticeable. It's a whirlwind of black ink that covers the left side of his face, swirling from his forehead to his upper cheek. Aguilar says he paid for the first stage of the tattoo years ago, when he figured he'd never have to worry about job interviews again. If things had gone differently in Aguilar's life, the tattoo would have covered his entire face by now. Instead, two years ago, Aguilar and several other Soldiers brawled with the Hells Angels at the His sudden downfall provided a dramatic conclusion to one of the most awe-inspiring, if bizarre, religious movements in a county famous for spawning evangelists: the transformation of thousands of dangerous hoodlums, addicts and ne'er-do-wells other churches avoided like the plague into a flock of devoted followers who viewed Aguilar as their shepherd. But his charismatic style of Christianity eventually became his own undoing, making it possible for prosecutors to charge him with attempted murder thanks to a fight in which, by all accounts, Aguilar never threw a punch. All of which explains his abruptly aborted facial tattoo. "Knowing I had to go to court, I decided to leave the tattoo like it was," Aguilar explains. "People ask me if it has a spiritual meaning," he adds. "The truth is, I just think it looks cool." Until the melee at Blackie's put him behind bars again, Phillip Russell Aguilar hadn't crossed the law for 34 years. It's a period of time that saw a remarkable turnaround in a life that up to that point had spiraled downward into delinquency, violence, drug addiction and self-destruction. The road that led Aguilar to the dark night of his soul and, by his reckoning, into the clear light of love and redemption began in 1947 in the When he was about 12 years old, Aguilar discovered his father was having an affair with the cleaning lady. "Next thing I know, he moves in with this woman and, boom, has two kids who are going to the same school as me," he says. "I'm mad at my mom, mad at the world and just didn't give a shit about anybody." Aguilar began skipping classes with his friends in a gang he started called the Olive Street Crew, drinking and smoking pot, and ripping off trains that rolled through his neighborhood. By the time Aguilar was 19, he had bleached his hair in an attempt to fit in with his white friends and passed his time selling marijuana, trying to get laid and surfing at He quickly learned that being a hippie behind bars wasn't such a great idea. "I was practicing yoga, and this big white guy told me that wasn't acceptable," he says. "Then I saw this hippie-looking effeminate kid, and these cool guys I'm talking to take him into this cell and rape him. It was an eye-opener, and all of a sudden, I'm thinking about fighting again." Upon being released from jail in 1969, Aguilar got married; fathered a son, Geronimo; and quickly sank back into the depths. After a few years of nonstop cocaine use, he left his wife and son behind and graduated to heroin. He also fell in love with a 22-year-old woman named Sandra De Falco. She was engaged to someone else at the time, but Aguilar charmed her, and they remain together to this day. "I was fooled," she says. "He was a very charismatic guy. I started dating him; I helped him get a job. I became his helper. It's been 34 years, and I'm still with him." De Falco convinced him to try to get clean, and Aguilar spent a brief stint at a Jehovah's Witness-run rehabilitation clinic in Guarding his ever-diminishing bag of coke, Aguilar blockaded himself in the apartment he shared with De Falco and her 3-year-old son, cranked up the music, and started to get high. What happened next, Aguilar says, is blurry in his mind. "I started doing speedballs, mixing heroin with coke, and started getting nutty," he says. "The neighbors started complaining, and this one lady said something, and, boom, I knocked her. Then my stepson did something, and I just whacked him. I didn't think anything of it at the time." Responding to a domestic-violence call, police rushed into Aguilar's apartment and caught him trying to flush the remainder of his stash down the toilet. "When they arrested me, it was a relief," Aguilar says. By then, he weighed around 130 pounds, his face more skull than skin. Aguilar pled guilty to assault. At Chino State Prison, several months into his newfound sobriety, Aguilar experienced an awakening. "One day at chapel call, I sat in a small room and heard someone talk about Jesus," he says. "And I made a decision that day. I knew I wanted to change my life around. I became an addict for the Lord. I asked Jesus to come into my heart. I was such a good inmate they let me out [after] just under two years." While behind bars, Aguilar married De Falco, much to her parents' dismay, and moved back to "I didn't want to do organ music," he explains. "I wanted to do rock music, punk music, and ride my Harley." Fellow Baptists told him he could ride a Honda, but a Harley was out of the question. "They said, ‘You're a little too wild for us, your music is too loud, you are hanging around with tongue-talking Christians, playing guitar. You're not a good conservative Baptist.' That's why I started Set Free." Aguilar's new church started in a friend's living room in 1982, but with help from then-Anaheim Mayor Dan Roth, it moved into a large warehouse on Anaheim Boulevard-just up the street from City Hall-and quickly grew into one of the largest churches in Nearby were other homes for recovering addicts that Aguilar purchased and ran like homeless shelters, complete with "overseers" who made sure nobody used drugs, drank alcohol or otherwise engaged in what Aguilar called "backsliding" activities. Set Free opened a rehabilitation ranch and communal homes in the His success in attracting hardcore followers from the ranks of Aguilar's profile increased when televangelists Jan and Paul Crouch of Another fan of Aguilar was Oden Fong, a Christian rock musician who, by the early 1980s, was a pastor with Calvary Chapel in Seeing Aguilar in action, though, Fong felt the pastor's grasp of scripture somewhat lacking, a deficiency at least partially overcome by his energetic preaching style. "Set Free were trying to be Christians in their own way, but they weren't getting a lot of instruction from the Bible," Fong says. "They were getting it from their pastor, but their pastor wasn't giving them a lot. ‘You need to get saved! You need to be a good person'-stuff like that. But he never really taught them how to change because he still had to have this persona of being tough, cool, on the edge, thumbing his nose at the rest of the church." Nevertheless, Fong-who worked closely with Calvary Chapel founder Chuck Smith-began referring members of Fong's impression of Aguilar changed, however, when several former Set Free members came to Calvary Chapel asking to talk to Smith about Aguilar. Smith asked Fong to handle the meeting. The group, which included the parents of Geronimo's wife, complained that Aguilar ran Set Free like a cult leader and that he pressured members not to visit their relatives. "They were saying, ‘We need your help,'" Fong recalls. "'Set Free has taken our children and has turned them against us and is keeping them from seeing us.'" Lacking any authority to censure the leader of another church, Fong says, his first instinct was to not get involved. But the Set Free defectors, with their tales of Aguilar's verbally abusive behavior and controlling leadership style, persisted. Finally, Fong's secretary received a four-page list of complaints. "They were all control issues," says Fong. "Phil would tell people who they could marry and who they couldn't marry. He had girls scrubbing bleachers with toothbrushes, just things that were pretty raw and forceful." Realizing the serious nature of the allegations, Fong decided Fliers bearing photographs of Aguilar and the name of his church were circulated throughout the country, leading religious groups to successfully shut down efforts by Set Free to open churches in locations such as Hesperia, In the midst of the controversy, Orange County Register reporters visited Aguilar at the Set Free compound and asked for his side of the story. The paper's devastating June 9, 1991, report-splashed across the front page, featuring multiple articles-quoted people who had lived in Set Free homes complaining about having to work essentially as unpaid servants for Aguilar and other family members and noted that during their interviews with Aguilar, he paused and pointed at "a middle-aged woman who has lived in his homes for three years," telling the reporters "she even picks up my dirty underwear." It revealed a pastor who publicly said he lived in poverty but privately owned classic cars, flashy motorcycles and leather jackets, and it disclosed Aguilar had not only assaulted De Falco's son, but also physically abused the 7-year-old son of a former girlfriend during his drug days. "All of a sudden, I'm getting cancellation letters from all over the country where I was going to speak," Aguilar recalls. "Everywhere I turned, there was Oden saying these things." Aguilar's response was to go on the offensive. "This guy didn't know me," Aguilar says of Fong. "I didn't know him. Who is this guy?" Aguilar demanded a meeting with Chuck Smith, hoping to convince him to force Fong to "shut up." When that didn't work, he unsuccessfully sued Fong and another Calvary Chapel pastor for slander. He also sent members to confront Fong at Calvary Chapel. "Phil was getting frustrated, and that's when the intimidation started," Fong recalls. "Once, he sent, like, 80 guys to my Bible study. These were 80 kids from the homes, and they were really disruptive, yelling, making noise." Another time, Aguilar reportedly sent a group of Set Free Soldiers to wait for Fong outside his church. "They all tightened in a circle around me so that the only way I could get out was to push my way physically out of the midst of them. They probably figured I wouldn't do that." Aguilar's tactics only deepened Fong's suspicion that something was seriously amiss within Set Free. "It was just the strangest vibe," he says. "All of my senses were telling me that there was something wrong, but it was just this nebulous thing." But more dissidents came forth. One former member of Aguilar's biker club told Fong that physical abuse was part of the Set Free Soldiers' program. "He was one of the biggest guys in the motorcycle club," Fong says. "He said that Phil would have the guys beat him up, just to help him a little bit. Things like that-they were just really rough people, and they didn't seem transformed by their faith to be kind and loving, like Christians are discipled to be." Other problems began hounding Aguilar. He and Set Free were named in a lawsuit alleging one of his ministers sexually abused a teen and smoked crack cocaine with him at a Aguilar's affiliation with TBN and the controversy swirling around Set Free were covered extensively in the Christian Sentinel, a Philadelphia-based watchdog newspaper published by Bill and Jackie Alnor. "We felt that TBN was a threat to Christianity, and we still believe that," Jackie Alnor says. "We also became big critics of Phil. He was a useful idiot for TBN. They used him because he had a nice, Hispanic last name, and they wanted to expand from 12 major networks to 14. They tossed him aside when he was no longer useful to them." Alnor has since had a change of mind about Aguilar, she says. "He's scary, okay? You can look at Phil and be intimidated," she says. "But he reaches people that other people will not go near. He has passed the test of time by continuing to reach out to the dregs of society." In 1993, Set Free lost its lease for the large warehouse where it had held services for a decade, and Aguilar decided he'd had enough of Aguilar's son Matthew was a teenager during Set Free's The act soon went national, and then, thanks to a boost from the military, overseas. "The first place we were invited was Back in The club's outlaw image didn't go unnoticed by the cops. In Law enforcement's suspicion the Set Free Soldiers were really just another outlaw biker gang was bolstered by an event that took place early in the afternoon of July 27, 2008. That morning, Aguilar and about 15 Soldiers rode out from Just after 1:30 p.m., Aguilar and his entourage rolled into tourist-and-sunbather-packed Black-and-white security footage recorded at Blackie's that afternoon shows Aguilar walking past a pool table to the bar, taking off his Set Free Soldiers vest and placing it on the back of a barstool-an act prosecutors claimed was a gang-related act of intimidation. A few minutes later, Aguilar exits the bar, talking on his cell phone. Prosecutors would later allege Aguilar was calling for backup, sending word to other Soldiers that they were needed for an expected rumble at the bar. Aguilar says he was calling his wife to let her know what time he was coming home, a claim backed by cell-phone records. Five men walked into Blackie's less than two minutes after Aguilar made that phone call. They were members of the Hells Angels, the largest motorcycle gang in the world. Ninety seconds later, the barroom erupted in violence. Escorted out of harm's way into a corner by his son, Aguilar was perhaps the only one who sat out the fight. A Hells Angel hit a Soldier in the head with a pool ball, and Set Free's Jose Enrique Quiñones stabbed two Hells Angels with a knife. Quiñones is now serving eight years in prison for attempted murder. Within a minute, the fight ended as the outnumbered Hells Angels retreated from the bar. To this day, Aguilar claims he had no idea at the time that he'd just been involved in a fight with the Hells Angels. "It happened so quickly," he says. "I kind of recognized one guy, and immediately one of the men started talking to me. I can't tell you what he said, but I was talking to him and trying to work out some kind of issue. And a fellow next to me-I only know because I've seen the video-he took a swing at another fellow who was with us but who wasn't a Set Free Soldier but who had made a negative comment." Not realizing anyone had been stabbed and seeing no serious injuries among his flock, Aguilar says, he was in no rush to leave That clue arrived at about 5 a.m. at Aguilar's Aguilar awoke to the blast of flash grenades followed by the sounds of dogs barking, helicopters hovering overhead and police yelling through a megaphone. "We saw a tank out front and all these SWAT-team guys," Aguilar says. "Brother, it was like the end of the world. I believe in the Rapture and all that stuff, and I thought this was the end thing of everything." Because they were certain the Set Free Soldiers were really gang members masquerading as Harley-riding evangelists, police didn't break down doors. Instead, they called Aguilar and instructed him to have everyone-including his wife, two sons and several of his grandchildren-come out with their hands up. That accomplished, police searched the compound. Instead of finding drugs or caches of weaponry, they found three items: a Colt pistol in the bedroom of Aguilar's son-in-law Michael Timanus, a pair of brass knuckles in Matthew's room and a bullet in a jar beside Aguilar's bed. Citing those items, police charged Aguilar, Matthew and Timanus with attempted murder and a host of other charges, ranging from street terrorism to being a felon in possession of a gun and/or ammunition. However, prosecutors dropped the attempted-murder charges against the trio at their arraignment. Although Aguilar spent only three days behind bars, courtroom proceedings dragged on until May 13 of this year, when Aguilar finally pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of being a felon in possession of ammunition. He received a sentence of time served and three years of informal probation. Timanus, an ex-felon, received a sentence of 210 days in jail for the pistol. Matthew, who had no criminal record, pled guilty to a misdemeanor for having the brass knuckles. On Nov. 16, a judge dismissed the charge, citing the fact that Matthew had stayed out of trouble for six months. According to Susan Kang Schroeder, chief of staff for the Although he's one of Aguilar's fiercest critics, Calvary Chapel's Fong never believed for a second that Aguilar intentionally picked a fight with the Hells Angels, he says. "I don't think he would ever have anyone stabbed. I think if someone tried to hurt their pastor, someone in Set Free would stab someone, and that's self-defense, and I know the Hells Angels are bullies," Fong says. "Phil Aguilar isn't crazy. He's an egotistical man, and I think he's been broken, which is good. But he can still do good in the community if he's a real Christian." On a recent morning, a rainy mist settles over the Set Free compound. Despite the overcast skies, Aguilar is dressed in a T-shirt bearing the logo of the Set Free Soldiers and his eyes are invisible behind his trademark black sunglasses. About 90 minutes into an interview with the Weekly, there's a loud screech of rubber followed by the crunch of metal upon metal. Aguilar winces at the noise and jogs to the front of his house, where Matthew is already standing. Thirty feet away, a gray pickup truck sits in the intersection with its front end smashed by a Chrysler sedan that was making a left turn. Aguilar checks with the driver, a stunned-looking middle-aged Latino in a cowboy hat, to make sure he's okay. He asks Matthew to see if he or the other driver needs any help, and then he walks back to the patio to resume the interview. A few minutes later, Matthew comes jogging over, laughing and shaking his head. "The guys that caused that crash were undercover cops," he says. "They're all standing out there with the cops who arrived, saying that they made the turn because they were following a suspect." Despite the obvious humor (Aguilar had just finished talking about how often police roll up and down his street), Matthew isn't laughing much these days. "It's hard now because I have an arrest on my record," he says. "People think twice about working with you." Matthew used to get work making hip-hop soundtracks for The Blackie's incident and Aguilar's subsequent arrest also killed what would have been Set Free's biggest publicity coup ever: a proposed A&E reality-television show about him called Saint or Sinner. The network had already paid six figures to have a pilot episode produced, but it pulled the plug after the raid. Meanwhile, Aguilar had to sell two of the buildings that used to house members of his church to pay for his legal expenses. The church now meets at the banquet room of a nearby hotel. "Everybody thinks I'm outlaw," he says. "I was in
“The pastor of the Set Free motorcycle ministry, out of jail on $50,000 bail, spoke about his arrest to more than 100 of his parishioners over the weekend. Pastor Phillip Aguilar, 60, founder of the Set Free church, told the congregation he was not angry about 150 police officers raiding his properties on Wednesday. Officers from police departments throughout Orange County got warrants to search and seize properties from several Set Free homes. He said he knows the image his organization portrays – one of heavily tattooed motorcyclists who drive fancy bikes and cars – played a role in how officers reacted to the barroom brawl in which he and six other members of the church were arrested on attempted murder charges. “The people I work with are a rugged-looking crew,” Aguilar said. A crew of the Set Free Soldiers is accused of fighting with members of the Hells Angels at Blackies by the Sea in Newport Beach late last month. The attempted murder charge against Aguilar was dropped, and prosecutors have charged him and two other members with weapons violations and street terrorism. One Set Free member, Jeremy Gaither, 28, was reportedly hit in the head with a pool ball. Two Hells Angels members were stabbed, authorities said. To help change the church’s image, often referred to as a Christian biker gang by authorities, Aguilar told parishioners to stop loitering outside the Archer Street properties, and for his friends to stop parking their Bentleys and Mercedes Benzes in front of his home. “When people go by and they see these cars, there’s this perception about who you are,” Aguilar said. “Even the mail man comes by and says, ‘Hey, what’s up, Trump?’” Parishioners say the Set Free family is dedicated to helping others. Gaither’s parents, Jay, 50, and Marrianne, 47, were at their wit’s end with their kids, who were both involved in heavy drugs, Marrianne Gaither said. Jeremy, 28, and sister Jennifer Gaither, 26, moved into one of the group’s sober-living homes last year and have since changed for the better, Marrianne Gaither said. Father, Jay Gaither, 50, said he was uneasy about his son and daughter entering into Set Free’s rehab at first because of his perception of the group. “Before my kids started coming here, I was skeptical, but this was the only thing that straightened them out,” Gaither said. “We tried everything. For Jennifer, she went to the Salvation Army. For Jeremy, he went to other rehabs, and he went to prison.” Jeremy Gaither remains in Orange County jail on a parole violation. Thirty years ago, Aguilar was addicted to heroin. He also has spent time in jail for child abuse. Aguilar now preaches to a mix of recovering drug addicts like Jeremy and Jennifer Gaither on Saturday nights in the backyard of one of his S. Archer Street properties. Aguilar said during the raid last week, a legally-registered pistol was discovered in his son’s, Phillip Aguilar Jr., room. Another son has brass knuckles that he got in Asia. He hopes once the gun is explained in court, charges will be dropped. “When I heard that they took all the cars, and they took all the motorcycles – I thought none of that really matters,” Aguilar said of the vehicles seized by authorities. “What really matters is seeing the people you love.” ******* Biker sentenced, others waitingSet Free Soldier pleads guilty to attempted murder for stabbing a rival gang member last year at Newport bar.June 12, 2009 |By Joseph Serna With the second of eight defendants sentenced to prison this week, prosecutors are turning their focus to the remaining six men charged in relation to last summer’s biker brawl by the sea in Newport Beach that left one man stabbed. Six men, including a father and son from Anaheim and two men from Costa Mesa, all have scheduled court appearances in the coming months related to the infamous fracas between the Set Free Soldiers and Hells Angels inside Blackie’s By the Sea bar near the Newport Pier in July. The latest man to face justice from the incident was Jose Enrique Quinones, 43, of Anaheim, who was sentenced to eight years in prison Thursday for trying to slit a rival’s throat before ultimately stabbing him in the abdomen. Phillip Aguilar, 61, Anaheim. Charged with several felonies including possessing a firearm as a felon, possession of a deadly weapon and street terrorism. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 10. Matthew Aguilar, 30, Anaheim. Charged with felony possession of a deadly weapon and street terrorism. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 10. Michael Timanus, 30, Anaheim. Charged with felony street terrorism and two counts of a felon possessing a firearm. Preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 10. Brian Heslington, 36, Costa Mesa. Charged with two felonies of possession of a controlled substance and felony of possession of a controlled substance with a firearm. Trial is scheduled for July 13. John Lloyd, 41, CostaMesa. Charged with felony of having a concealed firearm and a felony of being a gang member carrying a loaded firearm in public. Trial is scheduled for July 6. Glenn Schoeman, 57, Riverside. Felony of accessory after the fact and street terrorism. Preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 30. ******* Set Free Soldier pleads guilty to attempted murder for stabbing a rival gang member last June 12, 2009 |By Joseph Serna Philip Aguilar, 62, was sentenced Thursday and given credit for time he’d already spent in jail. He pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor count of a prohibited person owning Biker sentenced, others waiting The founding pastor of a Christian motorcycle club who was originally charged with street terrorism for his role in a 2008 brawl in Newport Beach with the Hells Angels has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and been sentenced to probation. In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to drop three felony weapons and street-terrorism charges. The plea brought to a close a case that highlighted the controversial Christian ministry’s descent into what prosecutors alleged was a criminal enterprise. The charges stemmed from a July 2008 bar fight on the waterfront in Newport Beach between the Set Free Soldiers and the Hells Angels, a brawl that ended with two stabbings and one man being pelted with a billiard ball. In a predawn raid in August 2008, authorities seized dozens of weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition at four homes on Archer Street in Anaheim owned by Set Free. Aguilar served prison time for child abuse in the 1970s, and as a convicted felon is prohibited from having a firearm and ammunition. He converted to Christianity in prison and founded Set Free Worldwide Ministries in 1982. Police and prosecutors contend that the group evolved into a criminal motorcycle gang in recent years, but Set Free describes itself as a Christian ministry that ministers to ex-convicts and recovering drug addicts. Several members of the Anaheim-based group, including Aguilar’s son Matthew, have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the brawl and subsequent raids. - Source / Full Story: No jail sentence for founder of Christian motorcycle club accused in Newport Beach brawl with Hells Angels, Tony Barboza, L.A. Now, Los Angeles Times Blog, May 18, 2010 — Summarized by Religion News Blog Ultimately, prosecutors filed attempted murder charges against only one of the Set Free Soldiers, Jose Enrique Quinones, 43, of Anaheim. In December, Quinones pleaded guilty to that charge and a charge of street terrorism, plus a sentencing enhancement of causing great bodily injury, and was sentenced to eight years in state prison. Four other Set Free Soldiers were charged with weapons and gang-related crimes. Aguilar’s son, Matthew John Aguilar, 31, of Anaheim pleaded guilty to possession of a deadly weapon and is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 14, Emami said. The elder Aguilar’s son in law, Michael Alan Timanus Jr., 31, faces charges of street terrorism and possession of a firearm by a felon. His case appears to be set for a preliminary hearing, Emami said. In December 2008, Rodrigo Jose Requejo, 36, of Westminster, pleaded guilty to one felony count of aggravated assault for his role in the brawl. He was sentenced to three years of formal probation and 30 days in jail. Meanwhile, Glenn Arthur Schoemen, 58, pleaded guilty in September to street terrorism and being an accessory after the fact, Emami said. Schoemen was sentenced to three years informal probation and 120 days in jail. Two alleged associates of the Hells Angels motorcycle club also were charged in connection with the fight. In early March, a judge tossed out drug and weapons charges against Brian David Heslington, 37, of Costa Mesa, citing concerns about a Newport Beach detective’s honesty. The District Attorney’s office “was unable to proceed at the time” with the case but reserves the right to refile charges against Heslington, Emami said. Another Hells Angels member to be charged in the incident, John Phillip Lloyd, 42, faces a jury trail on June 4 on charges of street terrorism and being a gang member carrying a loaded weapon, Emami said. - Source / Full Story: Christian biker leader gets probation for role in bar brawl, Greg Hardesty, Orange County Register, May 18, 2010 — Summarized by Religion News Blog Published: May 18, 2010
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