Federal prosecutors on Tuesday charged a Koreatown man with throwing Molotov cocktails at security officers inside a downtown Los Angeles federal building in an attack seeking to target immigration officials headquartered there.
Jose Francisco Jovel, 54, was arrested Monday on suspicion of tossing two improvised explosive devices into the building toward federal security officers about 8:20 a.m. There was charring and burning where the first device landed, according to an affidavit from an FBI special agent. No one was injured.
Prosecutors charged Jovel with attempted malicious damage of federal property, with an investigator saying he told them it was a “a terrorist attack” that he was carrying out because “you’re separating families,” an apparent reference to immigration officials’ detention of family members.
Jovel confessed to having set his Koreatown apartment on fire four hours earlier after receiving an eviction notice, according to the affidavit filed in federal court. Then he headed to the federal building at 300 N. Los Angeles St. on his bicycle, carrying multiple shopping bags.
While standing at the base of the stairs outside the building’s main entrance, Jovel reached into one of the bags on his bicycle’s handlebars and tossed a Molotov cocktail through the building’s sliding door, the affidavit said. The entrance is marked as an employee entrance, and the doors automatically open.
Jovel then threw another device through the open door of the federal building’s public entrance, where people were waiting in line to go through security to enter the building, according to the FBI investigator’s affidavit.
Investigators examined security video that they said revealed Jovel attempted to light at least one of the devices he tossed.
Federal security officers immediately arrested Jovel, then searched the bags and found a lighter and five more firebomb devices.
The federal building houses Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Jovel told authorities he was motivated by his anger at the federal government’s immigration policies and actions, the affidavit said.
Jovel is expected to make his initial appearance Wednesday before a magistrate in U.S District Court in Los Angeles.
“This case exemplifies how misleading and hateful rhetoric against federal law enforcement can and does result in violence,” First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli said in a statement announcing the charges.
“There can be zero tolerance for any targeting of law enforcement officials — let alone violent acts — and we’re lucky that the devices allegedly thrown by the subject did not physically injure anyone,” said Akil Davis, the assistant director of the FBI in charge of the Los Angeles field office. “The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is dedicated to investigating and holding accountable anyone who conducts targeted attacks against government employees.”
Jovel, when confronted by federal officers, yelled for people to “start shooting these,” referring to the officers, the affidavit said. Jovel said that if there weren’t kids there, he would kill them. According to law enforcement sources, he is a U.S. citizen.
Along with the Molotov cocktails, investigators said they found a flame torch, a handheld device that can be used to produce a flame and is sometimes used as a kitchen or grill tool; two airsoft guns; and five knives.
Los Angeles firefighters responded to the federal building around 8:30 a.m., and a hazmat unit assessed a liquid at the scene and rendered it safe.
If convicted, Jovel would face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.