By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A U.S. Marine and a second man were arrested on charges they threw a burning Molotov cocktail at a Planned Parenthood clinic that provides abortions and other services in Southern California last year, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Chance Brannon, a 23-year-old Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton base in Orange County, California, and Tibet Ergul, 21, are both charged in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana with using explosives or fire to damage property.
Attorneys for the two defendants could not be reached for comment by Reuters on Wednesday afternoon. Both men were scheduled for initial court appearances later on Wednesday in federal court in Santa Ana.
No-one was hurt in the attack at around 1 a.m. on March 13, 2022, but the exterior of the clinic in Costa Mesa was damaged. Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion provider.
“My office takes very seriously this brazen attack that targeted a facility that provides critical health care services to thousands of people in Orange County,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a written statement announcing the arrests.
Abortion has become an incendiary political issue in the United States following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last year to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision legalizing the procedure nationwide.
Since that decision 14 U.S. states have sought to ban or restrict abortion, touching off court fights and protests.
Surveillance footage captured images of two men in hooded sweatshirts running toward the clinic short before 1 a.m. on the morning of the bombing. One of the suspects can be seen carrying something under his left arm.
The FBI issued a poster in January offering a $25,000 reward for help identifying the suspects, prompting an individual who attended high school with Brannon and Ergul to come forward, according to the criminal complaint.
That person, who is not named in the criminal complaint, told investigators that Ergul texted him boasting about his involvement in the bombing, as well as a photo of a hand holding a Molotov cocktail inside a moving car.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Alistair Bell)
