Federal authorities have arrested and charged a militant Antifa activist following a months-long domestic terrorism investigation into the attempting bombing of an occupied Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Atlanta.
Richard Tyler Hunsinger, 28, was arrested early last month and charged with damaging or attempting to damage U.S. government property using fire, intimidation of a federal officer and depredation against U.S. property.
According to the affidavit written by a special agent assigned to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in Atlanta, Hunsinger was part of a black bloc group that smashed their way into an occupied Atlanta ICE field office using cinder blocks, rocks and hammers on July 25. From there, the rioters threw a nail bomb and Molotov cocktails into the building. The outside was graffitied with messages affiliated with Antifa and far-left politics.
“An examination of the bottles conducted by the FBI determined they were ‘improvised incendiary devices’ (IIDs), also known as ‘Molotov cocktails,’ which are destructive devices as they contain an ignitable material, breakable container, and a wick,” writes the special agent in the criminal complaint. “Agents also discovered a commercial pyrotechnic inside the DHS Building. This pyrotechnic had been modified by the addition of metal nails into the body of the pyrotechnic.”
VANDALISM: Atlanta @ICEgov field office was ransacked overnight. Federal agents now patrolling the grounds.
Twitter chatter suggests the group targeted the property to stand in “solidarity” with Portland, where protestors have clashed repeatedly w/agents guarding a courthouse. pic.twitter.com/ayYtS5ijgR
— Emilie Ikeda (@EmilieIkedaFOX5) July 26, 2020
All the masked militants fled the scene but one crucial key evidence that led investigators to identify Hunsinger as a suspect was from a pool of blood at the site of the attack. Agents contacted hospitals in the area to look for patients who were seeking treatment for lacerations. Hunsinger and his girlfriend Kathryn Richards, another far-left activist, checked into the emergency department of a nearby hospital soon after the attack on the office. Security footage at the hospital showed Hunsinger wearing the same dark clothing and shoes as one of the suspects captured on CCTV lighting a suspected Molotov cocktail.
“The crime scene investigation conducted by FBI recovered several items, which indicated that the individuals inside the fenced area close to the DHS Building attempted to start fires within the DHS Building,” reads the affidavit. There were burn marks on the walls but the incendiary devices apparently failed to explode…
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