A FILIPINO American army veteran from Reseda, California has been convicted for attempting to bomb a white supremacist rally in Long Beach in 2019.
Mark Steven Domingo, 28, was found guilty of providing material support to terrorism and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, according to a news release from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ).
He is scheduled to be sentenced on November 1 and faces a statutory maximum sentence of life in federal prison.
According to the U.S. DOJ, the investigation into Domingo was prompted by his online posts expressing “support for violent jihad, a desire to seek retribution for attacks against Muslims and a willingness to become a martyr.”
“After considering various attacks – including targeting Jewish people, churches and police officers – Domingo decided to bomb a rally scheduled to take place in Long Beach in April 2019,” the agency added.
The U.S. DOJ recounted that Domingo asked a confederate, who was working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as part of the investigation, to invite a bomb-maker into the scheme.
Then, the Army veteran purchased and provided to the confederate and the bomb-maker, who was an undercover law enforcement officer, several hundred 3½-inch nails to be used as shrapnel for the bombs.
“Domingo specifically chose those nails because they were long enough to penetrate organs in the human body,” the U.S. DOJ noted.
On April 26, 2019, Domingo received what he thought were two live bombs, but were inert explosive devices delivered by an undercover law enforcement officer. He was arrested that same day before he could carry out his plot.
Domingo’s case was part of an investigation by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, Los Angeles Police Department, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and the Long Beach Police Department. (Ritchel Mendiola/AJPress)
