A 32-year-old man has been arrested on federal arson-related expenses in connection with a fireplace that broken a Planned Parenthood clinic in Peoria, Illinois, earlier this month, authorities introduced Wednesday.
Tyler Massengill was taken into custody Tuesday on expenses of “malicious use of fire and an explosive to damage, and attempt to damage, property used in and affecting interstate commerce,” based on a prison grievance filed in U.S. District Court.
The fireplace was reported within the late-night hours of Jan. 15. Surveillance cameras captured footage of an older-model white pickup truck with pink doorways parked close by the clinic and a person approaching the constructing with a “laundry-detergent-sized bottle,” the grievance reads.
The suspect lit a rag on one finish of the bottle, smashed a window and positioned the container contained in the constructing, per the grievance.
The clinic sustained “significant damage,” based on courtroom paperwork, and has remained closed since. No one was inside on the time, and there have been no accidents.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Two days after the fireplace, Peoria police investigators acquired a tip concerning the truck’s license plate, prosecutors mentioned, and the proprietor of the truck was recognized as Massengill.
Investigators discovered that the truck in query had been taken to the house of an “individual” in Sparland, Illinois, which is positioned about 25 miles north of Peoria. The truck was positioned within the particular person’s storage, and Massengill “arranged for her to paint the doors on his truck for $300,” the grievance reads.
FBI brokers seized the truck from the Sparland dwelling on Monday, by which era the doorways had been painted white, based on the grievance.
Massengill telephoned Peoria police on Tuesday, after which got here to police headquarters for an interview, the place he admitted to sparking the fireplace, the grievance alleges.
He additionally informed investigators that if the fireplace brought about “a little delay” in a affected person receiving companies on the clinic, then it could have been “all worth it,” the grievance mentioned.
The fireplace occurred simply two days after Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into regulation reproductive well being care laws that protects out-of-state abortion seekers, based on The Associated Press.
If convicted as charged, Massengill faces a most sentence of 40 years in jail.