Carlos Espriu, a 23 year old from California, has been charged with attempted arson for the firebombing of the East Valley Republican Women Federated office in La Quinta.
Espriu allegedly used a baseball bat to break the windows of the office, then attempted to light three Moltov cocktails. In surveillance photos, he can be seen walking back to the building with the lit Moltovs, and throwing them through the broken window.
A video compilation of the surveillance photos was posted to the office’s Gofundme page:
The fundraiser has raised $8,865 so far, and is going to be used for increased security for the office, due to this incident and other recent hostility.
The GoFundMe page details the ongoing harassment that the Republican Women’s group has been facing recently. “The terrorizing goes on. Their headquarters have experienced increased hostility, including: multiple harassing phone calls daily, eggs thrown at the windows, and drive-by shouting accompanied by obscene gestures,” the page said.
According to a press release by the Office of the District Attorney of Riverside County, Espriu was arrested at around 6:30 p.m. on September 9th by the Riverside County Gang Impact Team, supervised by the District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigation.
Espriu is currently being held with a $1 million bond at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside. The DA’s office has charged him with “one count of arson of a structure during a state of emergency with an enhancement of using a device designed to accelerate a fire or delay ignition, and one count of igniting a destructive device with the intent to destroy property.”
Days before the incident, Espriu tweeted: “I wanna go burn s— n get hit with tear gas.” It has also been reported by the authorities that Espriu had been recorded bragging to a woman about how he made the bombs, and bragging that he had shaved his facial hair to hide his identity after the surveillance footage was shown by the media.
If convicted, Espriu faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, with a mandatory minimum of five years.
