Federal authorities arrested a 31-year-old Georgia man Thursday after prosecutors accused him of hurling a Molotov cocktail at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in downtown Atlanta earlier this week. Officials described the incident as an “act of terrorism.”
Inique Hinton, of Douglasville, faces federal charges of attempted arson of a federal building and depredation of government property, the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said.
“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,” US Attorney Theodore Hertzberg said at a news conference.
Prosecutors said surveillance footage showed Hinton walking near the ICE facility at 180 Ted Turner Drive shortly before 8:15 p.m. Tuesday.
A few minutes later, authorities allege, he set fire to an object and threw it toward the building. The object struck an exterior fence, where the flames began to spread.
Investigators reported finding burned cloth, lighter fluid, a glass bottle and a lighter at the scene.
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FBI agents arrested Hinton Thursday at a residence in Cobb County.
“This was obviously an attack directed at the ICE facility,” Hertzberg said. He vowed that prosecutors would respond with “extreme severity,” adding, “we need to send the message that this is not OK.”
“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,” he said.
Hertzberg said the Atlanta ICE building had also been targeted roughly six years ago, 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.”
Atlanta police saw the incident and tried to chase the suspect, but officers were unable to make an arrest that night. The FBI later released images of an unidentified person believed to be involved and offered a reward of up to $20,000 for information resulting in the suspect’s identification and arrest.
If convicted of attempted arson, Hinton would face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and a maximum of 20 years in federal prison. The government-property charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.
Authorities said the investigation is continuing.