As we mentioned in a recent Quick Take, last week, there was an explosion in a Harvard Medical School building at night that authorities said was intentional. Two masked suspects appeared in surveillance footage.
This week, the FBI arrested two young men from Massachusetts who they say carried out the act.
FOX News reports:
FBI arrests 2 men in connection with Harvard Medical School explosionThe FBI’s Boston Field Office has announced that two men in Massachusetts have been arrested in connection with an explosion at Harvard Medical School on Saturday.Logan David Patterson, 18, and Dominick Frank Cardoza, 20, were arrested in connection with offenses related to the use of an explosive device, the FBI said in a Tuesday news conference.The arrests were made by the FBI’s Boston Joint Terrorism Task Force, with assistance from the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD).Officials said that the pair caused the explosion by setting off a Roman candle firework. The firework went off inside a wooden locker in the fourth-floor research laboratory, which is part of the Department of Neurobiology, according to an affidavit.Video surveillance captured the pair climbing scaffolding and entering the building before the blast, officials said.Prosecutors said the men were visiting from Wentworth College, a nearby technical university, for Halloween social activities before the explosion.Ted Dox, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Field Office, said that the suspects’ actions could have led to serious injuries.”This explosive device had the potential to cause significant injury to anyone nearby — but only by sheer luck, and because of a rapid response by first responders, no lives were lost, no one was injured and property damage was limited,” Dox said.”Setting off an explosive device inside a locker at an institution geared toward higher education is not some harmless college prank. It’s selfish, it’s shortsighted and it’s a federal crime.”
More from WCVB News:
Patterson and Cardoza made their initial appearance in federal court Tuesday afternoon. The charge carries a sentence of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.They were both ordered to stay away from all Harvard buildings and cannot handle any firearms or fireworks.Both suspects did not answer questions while leaving court.However, one of their lawyers told reporters his client is a “good kid” with no record.He also says he doesn’t believe this matter should be in federal court to begin with.Officials said an explosive detonated within a wooden locker just before 3 a.m. Saturday on the fourth floor of Harvard’s Goldenson Building, which is on the university’s medical campus at 220 Longwood Ave.
You can’t blame the defense attorney for trying to downplay the charges but the fact that the FBI is even involved in this suggests it’s much more serious than the suspects probably imagined.
Featured image via YouTube.
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