Good for her.
Shortly after midnight on Tuesday morning, videos captured the moment a makeshift bomb was thrown at the Portland federal courthouse during another night of violent protest. A Trump-loving, 69-year-old woman soon stepped forward to out the suspect publicly — as her own grandson.
Karla Fox says she recognized the alleged bomber as her daughter’s son, 18-year-old Gabriel “Rico” Agard-Berryhill.
In the hours after the IED attack, social-media users analyzed videos showing a slim male, wearing a distinctive olive vest with the word “ICONS” printed on it, throwing something over the fence at the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse. Seconds later, a large explosion erupts, covering the front door in flames. The man picks up something off the ground and sprints off-camera. Police said the concussion could be “heard and felt more than a block away.”
Fox instantly identified her grandson because she gave him the vest.
“I bought the vest for him after he found one online after getting hit with rubber bullets the night before at the protest,” Fox told The Post. (She even left a positive review on clothing site Hibbett: “I got this for my grandson who’s a protester downtown, he uses it every night and says it does the job.”) She posted a photo of him posing in the $26 non-bulletproof apparel.
Agard-Berryhill seemed to confess to misguided involvement in the incident in text messages to The Post on Thursday, although he did not confirm he was the bomber.
“The device I’ve been accused of allegedly throwing was allegedly given to me by an unknown protestor with full face coverings,” he wrote. “I was allegedly told that it was a strobe firework that wouldn’t damage the building or harm anyone around it.”
He added: “Law enforcement has not contacted me for any alleged crime as of right now.”
“Alleged”.
Posing in his brand new vest.
Posing for his mug shot.
Late that same night Agard-Berryhill told his probation officer he wanted to turn himself in. He was arrested by U.S. Marshals and booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center, according to the affidavit by a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent. He’s charged with felony arson, and faces a minimum of five years in prison if convicted. He was released without bail.
He told the investigator that the device he was told to throw had “yellow cardboard packaging with blue stripes, was the size of a small ‘V8’ can, and had a green fuse.”
“No legitimate protest message is advanced by throwing a large explosive device against a government building. Mr. Agard-Berryhill’s actions could have gravely injured law enforcement officers positioned near the courthouse, other protesters standing nearby, or himself,” said Oregon District U.S. Attorney Billy Williams.
The bomb-throwing antics shocked Agard-Berryhill’s grandmother, a conservative who supports President Trump and whose Portland-area home is full of MAGA merchandise.
……Fox said her grandson is currently on probation for a felony conviction when he was a minor. She said he spent the past two years at Rogue Valley Youth Correctional Facility in southern Oregon and recently talked of turning his life around, and getting a job at Amazon.
He’s putting his criminal skills to use as a terrorist street punk.
Life sentence