KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City man was charged Wednesday with throwing two Molotov cocktails at U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s office on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The U.S. attorney’s office says Eric King, 28, is charged in last week’s attempted firebombing at Cleaver’s office in Kansas City. Police said a window was broken but that the alcohol-filled bottles failed to ignite before falling harmlessly outside the building. The paper towels that were stuffed into the necks of the bottles appear to have been lit but went out while still in the air.
A federal criminal complaint accuses King of using a dangerous instrument to oppose, impede, intimidate and interfere with a federal official engaged in the performance of his official duties. U.S. attorney’s office spokesman Don Ledford said that he didn’t think King had an attorney.
The affidavit says video surveillance footage shows King throwing a hammer through Cleaver’s office window in the early morning hours when the office was unoccupied and lighting the bottles.
King came to the attention of authorities as they investigated a series of anti-government Labor Day weekend vandalisms, which included spray painting anti-government graffiti on police vehicles and the Liberty Memorial National World War I museum.
The affidavit says that when King was arrested Tuesday as he was leaving his apartment, he was carrying a backpack that contained a can of red spray paint, lighter fluid and a clear plastic soda bottle containing an unknown liquid with a tube sock placed over it.
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