‘Queer’ Engineer Arrested for Firebombing Tesla Showroom, GOP Party Headquarters, Accused of Spraypainting ICE=KKK on Wall

A 40-year-old Albuquerque man and member of an LGBT science visibility campaign was arrested and charged for a pair of firebombings against a Tesla showroom and the Republican Party of New Mexico headquarters, both in Albuquerque, in what officials called acts of “political violence.”Jamison Wagner is accused of planting homemade incendiary devices inside two Tesla Model Y vehicles and spray-painting “Die Elon” and “Die Tesla Nazi,” along with swastika symbols, all over the showroom’s exterior during the February 9 attack. One Tesla vehicle was “significantly damaged” in the firebombing. Authorities say surveillance footage of the attack showed a “balding” individual standing over six feet tall and dressed in black lighting one of the incendiary devices on fire inside the Tesla vehicle.Wagner is also accused of placing a homemade incendiary device, which authorities described as glass containers containing “improvised napalm material,” at the entrance to the Republican Party of New Mexico headquarters in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on the early morning March 30 attack. Wagner is also accused of spray-painting “ICE=KKK” on the building’s facade. No one was injured in either attack. A joint investigation between the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the FBI Albuquerque Field Office, and local authorities matched a white Hyundai Accent seen near the Republican Party of New Mexico attack to the six-foot-four Wagner. At Wagner’s Albuquerque residence, FBI and ATF agents recovered eight homemade incendiary devices, an “ICE=KKK” stencil covered in red paint, and liquids “consistent with the gasoline used at the Tesla and RPNM fire scenes,” according to the criminal complaint.In a statement, FBI Director Kash Patel called both attacks “acts of domestic terrorism” and said Wagner’s arrest is part of the bureau’s “aggressive efforts to investigate and hold accountable those who have targeted Tesla facilities.”“Let this be the final lesson to those taking part in this ongoing wave of political violence,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi in a statement. “We will arrest you, we will prosecute you, and we will not negotiate. Crimes have consequences.”A profile for a man sharing the same name and hairline as Jamison Wagner on 500 Queer Scientists, a “visibility campaign for LGBTQ+ people and their allies working in STEM and STEM-supporting jobs,” says he is pursuing his masters in electrical engineering and is currently working as an intern for a “national lab.”“I am queer and I am an electrical engineer,” the man writes in his profile. An FBI spokesperson could not confirm if the profile belongs to Wagner. 500 Queer Scientists did not respond to a request for confirmation. Wagner is charged with two counts of malicious damage or destruction of property by fire or explosives and faces 5 to 20 years in prison for each count if convicted. Wagner is currently in custody. A detention hearing has not been set.

‘Queer’ Engineer Arrested for Firebombing Tesla Showroom, GOP Party Headquarters, Accused of Spraypainting ICE=KKK on Wall

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