A Long Beach man was sentence to prison for bringing a Molotov cocktail during an anti-immigration enforcement protest last year in downtown Los Angeles.
U.S. District Judge Anne Hwang sentenced Wrackkie Quiogue to 30 months in federal prison.
Quiogue, 28, pleaded guilty in November to one count of possession of an unregistered destructive device. He has been in federal custody since last summer.
Federal prosecutors said while many people were peacefully demonstrating against immigration enforcement operations in Los Angeles County last summer, some people sought to use violence to obstruct, impede or injure officers conducting the enforcement operations.
They said among them was Quiogue, who on June 8, during an anti-immigration enforcement protest in downtown Los Angeles, was seen by a police officer holding a Molotov cocktail.
“The glass bottle he held contained a flammable liquid (ethanol) and a source of ignition, namely a yellow piece of cloth soaked in ethanol, which acted as a wick,” Ciaran McEvoy, spokesperson for the Department of Justice, wrote in a statement. “Fearing that Quiogue would light the Molotov cocktail and throw it at the officers, police approached Quiogue, causing him to attempt to flee.”
McEvoy said Quiogue, then 27, threw the unlighted Molotov cocktail into the air as he was being pursued by police officers. He said Quiogue was then taken into custody while holding a lighter in his right hand.
Quiogue later admitted to possessing the destructive device and that he had not registered it with the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, as required by federal law.
