The FBI on Thursday arrested a 31-year-old Douglasville man accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in downtown Atlanta earlier in the week, a case federal prosecutors are calling an act of terrorism.
Inique Hinton was taken into custody at a residence in Cobb County and charged with attempted arson of a federal building and depredation of government property, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia.
U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg did not mince words at a news conference announcing the charges.
“An attack on federal property is an attack against our democracy. It is an act of terrorism. It is an act of political violence, and it cannot stand,” Hertzberg said.
Prosecutors say security footage shows Hinton walking near the ICE facility at 180 Ted Turner Drive just before 8:15 p.m. Tuesday. Minutes later, authorities allege, he lit an object and threw it toward the building, striking the exterior fence and sparking flames. Investigators later recovered burned cloth, lighter fluid, a glass bottle and a lighter from the scene.
Atlanta police officers who witnessed the incident tried to chase down the suspect that night but could not catch him. The FBI subsequently released images of the unidentified man and offered a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to his identification and arrest.
Hertzberg said the government intends to pursue the case with “extreme severity.”
“We need to send the message that this is not OK,” Hertzberg said. “We can talk about immigration, we can have civil discourse, but we cannot allow criminal acts, terroristic acts, like the one that was committed three days ago in our city.”
Hertzberg noted the same ICE facility had been targeted before, during the summer of 2020.
“I want to make very clear we are not going back to that,” he said. “We will not tolerate attacks on government property and attacks against federal law enforcement.”
If convicted, Hinton faces a mandatory minimum of five years and a maximum of 20 years in federal prison on the attempted arson charge. The depredation of government property charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years. Authorities said the investigation is ongoing.
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