A man pled guilty to making a dozen Molotov cocktails in relation to a plot to burn down a police union building in Seattle in 2020.
U.S. Attorney Nick Brown in the western district of Washington said in a statement Thursday that 34-year-old Justin Christopher Moore had pled guilty to unlawful possession of a destructive device.
Moore admitted in the plea agreement that he had made the incendiary devices as a part of a protest against police on Labor Day in 2020.
22 protesters were arrested after police said they were throwing explosives and rocks at police, and also spraying police with bear spray.
Police moved the protesters away from the building in downtown Seattle after they smelled gasoline and “grew concerned about the intentions of protestors.” The Molotov cocktails were found in a parking lot next to the union building.
The Seattle Police Department posted a photograph of the devices they seized at the time.
Investigators were able to identify Moore from video taken at the protest, and from video taken from “electronic devices of other co-conspirators.”
When they searched his home in June 2021, police found clothing consistent with what Moore had been wearing at the protest, items in the basement consistent with the manufacture of explosive devices, and a notebook where Moore had written about making explosive devices.
Moore could face up to 10 years in prison when sentenced.
That Labor Day protest in 2020 made headlines after police in the union building blasted the country hit song, “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)” as police closed in on the protesters. Earlier in the protest, one person draped a banner on an overpass that read “All My Heroes Kill Cops.”
Here’s more about the arrest of Moore:
Renton man arrested for using Molotov cocktails at protests | FOX 13 Seattle
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