One of McHenry County Blog’s readers asks why the Algonquin Caputo’s Molotov cocktail bomber isn’t being charged with terrorism.
Interesting question.
Here’s the press release from the Algonquin Police Department:
ALGONQUIN: The Algonquin Police Department received a call of a fire on Sunday, August 21, 2011, at 12:17 pm, at Joe Caputo and Son’s Grocery Store located in the 100 block of S. Randall Rd.
An investigation revealed that the fire was started by an adult male who had thrown an incendiary device fashioned out of a bottle filled with flammable liquid amongst a large group of people standing near the delicatessen in the rear of the store.
The suspect fled the store and was chased by an adult male shopper.
The suspect was caught outside the store by the shopper and assisted by an off-duty Carpentersville Police Officer.
The suspect was taken into the custody of Algonquin Police Department officers when they arrived on the scene.
The suspect is identified as 24 year old, Fabian J. Torres. Torres resides in Sleepy Hollow, IL.
He was charged with Aggravated Arson, and will be transported to McHenry County Jail in Woodstock, IL. He is scheduled to appear in court tomorrow.
One adult male victim was injured during the incident and he was treated and released on the scene.
The amount of the damage caused to the store is unknown at this time.
The investigation into various aspects of this incident is still continuing and additional charges may be filed in the future.
Aggravated Arson? He did not throw the bottle when the store was empty. He planned this attack so it should be First Degree Attempted Murder at the least! If this were to happen in a court house or police station the charges would be much different!!
He obviously wanted to kill or hurt, if he didn’t, he would have hit the store after hours. We need to have ZERO TOLERANCE for every dumb idiot who attempts to hurt innocent bystanders. These stupid domestic terrorists will continue to do stupid, dangerous things until our system makes every one of them accountable for their actions. No exceptions, regardless of their “mental stability”. They do something dangerous, they pay.
Aggravated arson is a class X felony (same as attempted murder) in Illinois.
And to answer the question Cal asks in his post, whether its gets considered terrorism or not should depend purely on the offender’s motive for the act. Example, if it was a disgruntled employee/customer taking out his misguided frustrations on Caputos’ customers/staff/property, its not terrorism. Sure, its still a heinous act and a serious crime but its not terrorism.
Sounds like terrorism to me. We let in millions of illegals because we feel sorry? or what. They are probably being trained here in terrorist cells while our government sends them to college for free
Bob,
There was no indication that this suspect is an immigrant, legal or illegal.
If witnesses comments are any indication, he’s a Native American which means he was born here.
Terrorism has some political motivation or is an attempt at damaging or overthrowing the government and there is also no indication of the suspect having that type of motive.
In any case, linking this suspect’s motive to terrorism without any proof or information to back the accusation is simply an attempt at causing panic and fear in the general population in my opinion.
This crime is sick and should be severly punished but terrorism, that’s a huge stretch.
I’m the guy who chased him down from the store and my first thought too was this guy just committed either a hate crime or terrorist act.
Once the manager came out and said he was an ex employee I felt different about his motive.
I do hope he is charged with much more because throwing it into a deli with 30 people means he had intend go inflict much more pain.
Good thing he was about 10 ft short on the throw