News
Featured Image
Wisconsin Family Action's Madison, Wisconsin headquarters following the May, 2022 firebombing attack. FOX6 News Milwaukee/YouTube/Screenshot

BOSTON (LifeSiteNews) — Boston police on Tuesday arrested a 29-year-old suspect in relation to the Mother’s Day firebombing attack on a pro-life office in Madison, Wisconsin last year after the leak of the U.S. Supreme Court’s draft decision in Dobbs v. Jackson.

Hridindu Sankar Roychowdhury of Madison, a research scientist with a Ph.D. in biochemistry, was arrested in Boston on March 28 and “charged with one count of attempting to cause damage by means of fire or an explosive,” the U.S. Department of Justice said in a press release, citing court documents.

Roychowdhury was apprehended at the Boston Logan International Airport while on his way to Central America. If convicted, he could face between five and 20 years in prison.

LifeSiteNews previously reported that the headquarters of pro-life advocacy group Wisconsin Family Action was set ablaze in an act of arson and vandalism in the early hours of the morning on Mother’s Day, May 8, 2022. Pro-abortion activists also stormed Catholic churches and targeted other pro-life resources centers around the country on the same day.

The attack on the Wisconsin Family Action’s office included the burning of one of the walls and a graffitied message on the building’s exterior reading: “If abortions aren’t safe then you aren’t either” was written in graffiti on the building’s exterior.

FULL LIST: Mother’s Day pro-abortion vandalism, church storming over possibility Roe v. Wade will fall

The DOJ press release noted that “law enforcement responded to an active fire” at Wisconsin Family Action’s building about 6 a.m. Upon gaining entry, the officers “observed a mason jar under a broken window; the jar was broken, and the lid and screw top were burned black.”

The DOJ said responding officers “also saw a purple disposable lighter near the mason jar. On the opposite wall from the window, the police saw another mason jar with the lid on and a blue cloth tucked into the top; the cloth was singed. The jar was about half full of a clear fluid that smelled like an accelerant.”

The press release said that in addition to the graffitied threat on the outer wall, the suspect or suspects also scrawled “a large ‘A’ with a circle around it and the number ‘1312.’”

Members of Antifa and other radical leftist groups often make use the symbol of an encircled “A”, which stands for “anarchy.” 1312 is a numerical code referencing the anti-police acronym “ACAB,” meaning “All Cops Are B*stards.”

According to the DOJ, local law enforcement obtained DNA from the scene that they ultimately traced to Roychowdhury. After identifying him as a suspect earlier this month, police surveilled him and used a discarded food item to match his DNA to that discovered at the scene.

Roychowdhury was arrested at the Boston Logan International Airport after traveling from Madison, Wisconsin to Portland, Maine, then booking a one-way flight from Boston to Guatemala City.

He was scheduled to appear before the U.S. District Court in Boston on March 28 ahead of a federal court date in Madison that had not yet been scheduled as of the DOJ press release.

Roychowdhury is looking at a mandatory minimum penalty of five years in prison or a maximum of 20 years behind bars, the DOJ said.

READ: New York pro-life pregnancy center vandalized for second time in a year by pro-abortion extremists

Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division argued that Roychowdhury’s attack on the pregnancy center, which came amid a slew of similar targeted pro-abortion attacks on Mother’s Day, was carried out in a bid “to terrorize and intimidate a private organization,” and praised the law enforcement officers “who worked exhaustively to ensure that justice is served.”

Robert Wells, assistant director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, slammed the use of violence as a tool for ideological grievance.

“Violence is never an acceptable way for anyone to express their views or their disagreement,” Wells said. “Today’s arrest demonstrates the FBI’s commitment to vigorously pursue those responsible for this dangerous attack and others across the country, and to hold them accountable for their criminal actions.”

News of Roychowdhury’s arrest in connection with the firebombing comes as federal agencies have faced long-standing pressure from pro-lifers to do more to prosecute attacks on churches and pro-life centers.

The pro-abortion Biden administration has reacted with a lack of aggressive action to violence against pro-life centers and churches, leading conservative lawmakers to accuse the federal government of operating according to a double standard with regard to abortion-related prosecutions.

In January, two people were indicted by a federal jury in Florida for allegedly vandalizing pro-life pregnancy centers last year and conspiring “to prevent employees of reproductive health services facilities from providing those services.”

3 Comments

    Loading...