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In Los Angeles, a 23-year-old man received a four-year federal prison sentence after admitting to attacking Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies with a Molotov cocktail during protests last spring. The demonstrations were sparked by immigration raids across the area.
The individual, Emiliano Garduno Galvez, a Mexican national reportedly residing illegally in the United States, confessed in October to charges of possessing an unregistered destructive device and inciting civil disorder. His actions took place on June 7 in the city of Paramount, close to Los Angeles, and he was sentenced this past Friday.
On that day, sheriff’s deputies were called to manage a large protest where demonstrators were hurling rocks and other objects outside a Home Depot. This location was the meeting point for U.S. Border Patrol agents.
The Los Angeles Times reported on the plea agreement, which reveals that Galvez admitted to lighting the Molotov cocktail behind a wall and throwing it towards the deputies he had spotted.
The explosive device landed on a grassy patch near a protester and approximately 15 feet (4.5 meters) from the deputies, as stated in the plea deal. Galvez admitted to fleeing the scene immediately afterward.
Galvez threw the device “intending to obstruct, interfere with, and impede the LASD deputies who were lawfully engaged in performance of official duties,” according to the agreement.
“This defendant’s reckless behavior threatened the lives and safety of law enforcement officers and that of a lawful protester,” Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said in a statement.
Galvez’s federal public defenders asked for a more lenient sentence of three years, saying in a sentencing memo that he now “readily admits and acknowledges how serious his actions were and the harm that could have ensued,” according to the Times.
Many demonstrations against the June immigration crackdown were peaceful, with marchers chanting slogans and carrying signs, though others led to clashes with police, hundreds of arrests and the use of chemical irritants to disperse crowds.