An Alabama man has pleaded guilty to setting off an explosive device filled with nails outside the state attorney general’s office earlier this year.
Kyle Benjamin Douglas Calvert pleaded guilty to the malicious use of an explosive device in connection with the February 24 incident, which did not cause any injuries.
“This defendant built a bomb using nails and screws as shrapnel and detonated it outside the Alabama Attorney General’s Office, endangering a public institution and members of the community,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “Public servants should never be targeted for doing their jobs. The Justice Department will not tolerate such conduct, and we will use every resource at our disposal to prevent these attacks and hold perpetrators accountable.”
Prosecutors described Calvert as “dangerous,” with a self-described “inability to control his own violent, aggressive impulses.
While Calvert detonated the homemade device in the early morning hours of February 24, law enforcement wasn’t called in about a suspicious package near the office until two days later.
The attempted attack came shortly after the Alabama Supreme Court issues its ruling on in vitro fertilization treatment, which said that frozen embryos qualify as children under state law in cases involving the wrongful death of children.
Calvert, who was arrested on April 10, said he had built the device himself. He is facing up to 20 years in prison.
The 26-year-old has expressed sympathies toward the far-left Antifa movement — even posting Antifa stickers near the scene of the explosion — but he claims he has no affiliation with the group, according to the DOJ.
The stickers featured messaging including “anti-fascism is community self-defense,” “abolish private property,” “eat the rich,” “death to fascism,” “arm the homeless,” “f*** work let’s riot!” and “never work.” The first sticker also featured an Antifa logo superimposed over a rainbow flag, while the “eat the rich” sticker had the anarchy symbol in place of the letter “a.”
The director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which investigated the case with the FBI, said the agency is “committed to holding those who attack American institutions accountable.”
“Violent, targeted attacks like this, aim to harm, whether physically or through fear and intimidation, the civil servants and public officials who serve our communities and country,” ATF director Steven Dettelbach said.