A decide sentenced an Oakland, California, man to greater than 19 years in federal jail for committing a collection of arsons and hearth bombings on the College of California–Berkeley, and a federal constructing in June 2024, officers introduced Sept. 23.
District Choose Jeffrey White referred to as Casey Robert Goonan, 35, a home terrorist, discovering he dedicated a felony offense that concerned, or was supposed to advertise, terrorism, prosecutors reported.
Goonan mentioned the assaults had been impressed by terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel, in response to prosecutors.
Goonan additionally mentioned he referred to as on others to assault property on San Francisco Bay Space school campuses in assist of Palestinians, prosecutors mentioned.
“Goonan admitted that his conduct was designed to influence and affect the conduct of governments by intimidation and coercion and to retaliate against the governments of the United States and the State of California for their conduct,” the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace in San Francisco reported.
Goonan pleaded responsible in January to 1 depend of maliciously damaging or destroying property utilized in or affecting interstate commerce by the use of hearth or an explosive.
Prosecutors mentioned Goonan positioned a bag containing six Molotov cocktails underneath the gas tank of a marked college police patrol automobile parked close to the Berkeley campus on June 1, 2024.
Goonon was accused of setting the bag on hearth and fleeing the world, inflicting the patrol automobile to catch hearth.
College police responded shortly, and the patrol automobile didn’t explode. The fireplace brought about important injury to its rear seats, gas port, and trunk, and it was deemed a complete loss, in response to prosecutors.
Prosecutors mentioned Goonan additionally tried to firebomb the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Constructing and U.S. Courthouse in Oakland on June 11, 2024. Goonan arrived on the federal constructing carrying a bag containing three Molotov cocktails. He threw rocks on the constructing, hoping to interrupt a window and throw lit Molotov cocktails inside, in response to prosecutors. The plan was interrupted by safety officers.
Goonan then positioned the do-it-yourself bombs in a planter on the aspect of the constructing and lit them on hearth, in response to courtroom paperwork.
“In addition to these two attacks, Goonan set other fires on the UC Berkeley campus on June 1, June 13, and June 16, 2024,” the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace reported.
A federal grand jury returned the indictment in July 2024, charging Goonan within the firebombing incident.
Along with the jail time period, the decide ordered Goonan to serve 15 years of supervised launch and ordered him to pay restitution of almost $95,000.
Goonan has remained in custody since his arrest on June 17, 2024.
“Freedom of expression and peaceful protest are deeply enshrined values in America,” mentioned U.S. Legal professional Craig Missakian. “We are all free to think what we want and express those views peacefully, but the use of violence to achieve political aims—or to silence those with whom you may disagree—has no place in our community and our country.”
Wade Stern, president of the Federated College Peace Officers Affiliation, representing the 350 sworn campus officers and sergeants, applauded the sentence.
“This domestic terrorist deliberately targeted our officers and our campuses with firebombs in acts of cowardice, hatred, and violence,” Stern mentioned in a press release offered to The Epoch Occasions.
“His calculated attempt to burn a University of California police vehicle, followed by an effort to attack a federal courthouse, was not just an attack on property—it was an attack on the men and women who put their lives on the line every day to keep our universities safe, and on the very principles of safety, freedom, and civil society,” he added.
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