A U.S. military veteran was planning an attack on multiple targets in California in retribution for the mass shootings at two mosques in New Zealand, said Nick Hanna, the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, on April 29. An Army veteran who allegedly planned to bomb a Los Angeles area white supremacist rally has been arrested and his plot foiled, authorities said Monday.
Officials identified the man as Mark Steven Domingo, 26, a recent convert to Islam who, they said, was seeking revenge for the March massacres at two New Zealand mosques that killed 50 people. The FBI had been tracking the California resident for weeks, law enforcement said, and he had spoken to a confidential informant about other possible attacks against Jews, police officers, churches and the famed Santa Monica Pier, a local landmark and tourist destination.
“The criminal case outlines a chilling terrorism plot that developed over the past two months and targeted innocent Americans,” said Nicola T. Hanna, U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, in a Monday news conference.
By mid-April, Domingo had homed in on a pair of white supremacist rallies scheduled to take place last weekend in two neighboring Southern California cities, Long Beach and Huntington Beach, according to a federal court filing. Domingo settled on the Long Beach event, allegedly telling the FBI informant — who he believed to be his co-conspirator — that’s where they could kill more people.
“If we do this, LA is going to be locked down,” Domingo said, according to the court records.
After considering a drive-by shooting or throwing a grenade, Domingo decided to use an improvised explosive device, authorities said. Again, he reasoned, “An IED will do a lot more damage crowd wise”.
The informant connected Domingo with a man who he said would make them a bomb. Investigators said Domingo then purchased several hundred nails to stuff inside the bomb as shrapnel — at three inches, they’d be long enough to pierce their victims’ internal organs, he allegedly said. But the purported bomb maker was actually an undercover FBI agent who helped arrest Domingo on Friday, as he surveyed the Long Beach park where the rally he had targeted was set to take place. He now faces terrorism charges and was expected to appear in U.S. District Court on Monday afternoon.
“The individual charged in this case wanted to carry out a mass casualty attack with explosive devices, and he moved very quickly from talking about violence to mobilizing to commit such an attack”, Michael McGarrity, the assistant director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Section, said in a statement. “This case should remind the public of the need to be vigilant and notify law enforcement if you see suspicious behavior”.
Authorities said Domingo had no known co-conspirators and does not constitute an ongoing threat. The white nationalists never showed up to the event in Long Beach, the Associated Press reported. Instead, counter protesters attended, rallying for peace.
The announcement came days after a man with an assault-style rifle attacked a synagogue near San Diego, killing one person and injuring three during services. Police arrested 19-year-old John Earnest in that attack. On the day of the shooting, an anti-Semitic screed describing a plan to kill Jews was posted online under the same name. Domingo’s plot and Earnest’s alleged hate crime were apparently unrelated.
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