December 2, 2025
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.
[Name], 54, was arrested Monday on suspicion of tossing two improvised explosive devices into the building toward federal security officers at about 8:20 a.m. There was charring and burning where the first device landed, according to an affadavit from an FBI special agent. No one was injured.
Prosecutors charged [name] 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.
[Name] 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 in downtown Los Angeles 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, [name] 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.
[Name] 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 [name] attempted to light at least one of the devices he tossed.
Federal security officers immediately arrested [name], then searched the bags and found a lighter and five more firebomb devices.
The building targeted houses Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and [name] told authorities he was motivated by his anger at the federal government's immigration policies and actions, the affidavit said.
[Name], when confronted by federal officers, yelled for people to "start shooting these," referring to the officers, the affidavit said. [Name] said 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 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.
Found on Mainstream News