A Delaware man hurled a Molotov cocktail at a Planned Parenthood office, igniting a blaze there, federal prosecutors said.
Samuel James Gulick, 18, was arrested on Saturday after the device – identified as a Molotov cocktail by ABC News – exploded at a Planned Parenthood facility in Newark, Del. early Friday, federal authorities announced Monday.
Surveillance video allegedly caught Gulick spray-painting the Latin phrase “Deus Vult” – a phrase associated with the Crusades meaning “God wills it” – in red letters across the building as he stood on its front porch.
Gulick, of Middletown, then stepped away, lit the fire-bomb and threw it into the office’s front window, leading to an explosion, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware.
Gulick, who was arrested by the FBI on Saturday, was apprehended after the city’s automatic license plate readers identified his alleged getaway car as his father’s Toyota Highlander, the Newark Post reports.
Investigators also built their case off of Gulick’s posts on Instagram — including those containing the phrase “Deus Vult,” anti-abortion messages and alt-right imagery, the newspaper said.
Gulick is charged with maliciously damaging the building and faces a minimum sentence of five years in prison. He could also receive up to 20 years behind bars and a $250,000 fine.
“It was determined to be an act of terrorism,” Ruth Lytle-Barnaby, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Delaware, said in a statement announcing Gulick’s arrest. “The safety measures we have in place continued to keep our staff and patients safe.”
Staffers at the Planned Parenthood office were not familiar with Gulick, Lytle-Barnaby told the New York Times.
“This is an act of domestic terrorism and a blatant attack on reproductive health,” Ruth Lytle-Barnaby told the newspaper. “Unfortunately, I feel like we are in a time and an administration that emboldens people to do things and this is one of the kinds of things that has been happening around the country.”
A federal public defender in Delaware told the Times on Tuesday that his office would not comment on the allegations.
Gulick is set to return to court for a detention hearing on Friday, the Times reports.
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