A man has been sentenced to prison for taking part in a plot to burn down the largest police labor union building in the Northwest, the Justice Department said.
Justin Christopher Moore now faces 40 months in prison for the act, which occurred on Labor Day in 2020.
The 35-year-old man from Renton, Washington, packed a box of 12 Molotov cocktails and took them to the Seattle Police Officers Guild Building at a protest march on September 7. After the marchers dispersed, police found a box of incendiary devices in a parking lot next to the city building.
Authorities used video footage and information from the co-conspirators’ electronic devices to determine that Moore had carried the box in March. The Justice Department said that a search warrant of his residence in June 2021 yielded the clothing he was seen wearing that day, as well as several items “consistent with the manufacture of explosive devices” and a notebook containing entries related to their manufacture. Also found.
In September 2022, Moore pleaded guilty to bringing explosives to a protest.
Prosecuting attorney Todd Greenberg asked for Moore to be sentenced to 41 months, saying his actions endangered the crowd of more than 1,000 protesters.
“Moore’s crime was extremely dangerous and posed a significant risk of injury to many bystanders,” Greenberg said. “If one of the devices had exploded they would all have been harmed.”
Greenberg was assisted by Seattle Police, the DOJ’s National Security Division, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.