A former U.S. Marine on Thursday pleaded guilty to firebombing a Planned Parenthood clinic in California, prosecutors said.
Chance Brannon, 24, is one of three people charged in connection with the March 13, 2022, Molotov cocktail attack at the clinic in Costa Mesa. Brannon, who was an active-duty Marine at the time, said he selected the target to “scare pregnant women, deter doctors and staff from providing abortion services, and encourage similar violent acts,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
Thankfully no one was injured in the early morning attack, though the clinic sustained fire damage and had to reschedule about 30 appointments. According to federal prosecutors, Brannon had considered other targets—including the Anti-Defamation League in San Diego—before the attack, and he said he subsequently planned a second hit on a different Planned Parenthood clinic with one of his co-defendants.
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Tibet Ergul, 22, of Irvine, California, Xavier Batten, 21, of Brooksville, Florida, have denied the charges against them and are scheduled to go to trial in March.
Prosecutors say Brannon admitted discussing with Ergul “starting a race war by attacking an electrical substation” with the intention of disrupting the power grid in Orange County. Brannon kept “an operation plan and a gear list” to target a substation, prosecutors say. Brannon possessed some of the items on the list, including a “specific rifle with ‘Total [N-word] Death’ written in Cyrillic” and a video of the 2019 mosque shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, prosecutors say.
Brannon and Ergul were arrested in June 2023, two days before an LGBTQ Pride night celebration at Dodger Stadium was due to take place. The pair had allegedly researched how to attack the event “including by using a remote-detonated device” and Brannon allegedly shared a “WW2 sabotage manual” with Ergul. Brannon also discussed the possibility of doing “dry runs” to “case” the stadium and researched Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber.
“This defendant exemplifies the insidious danger posed by domestic extremism,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said of Brannon in a statement. “The defendant, who was a member of the U.S. military, admitted not only to attacking a Planned Parenthood facility but also to planning for attacks on the power grid and a pride celebration at Dodger Stadium. We must never waver in our commitment to protect the American people from violent extremist ideology.”
Brannon pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy, malicious destruction of property by fire and explosives, possession of an unregistered destructive device, and intentional damage to a reproductive health services facility. Two of the counts carry mandatory minimum sentences of five years in federal prison. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 2024.
