The man accused of setting a fire outside U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Vermont office a week ago has had run-ins with gun control laws and has a history of traveling from place to place, say prosecutors in lawsuits arguing he should remain detained.
Surveillance video shows Shant Michael Soghomonian throwing liquid at the bottom of a door of Sanders’ third-floor office in Burlington and setting it on fire with a lighter last Friday, according to an affidavit filed by a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol . Tobacco, firearms and explosives.
Seven employees who were working in the office at the time were unharmed and were able to evacuate. The interior of the building suffered some damage from the fire and water sprinklers. Sanders, an independent, was out of office at the time.
The 35-year-old Soghomonian, formerly of Northridge, California, had been staying at a South Burlington hotel for nearly two months and was spotted outside Sanders’ office the day before and the day of the fire, according to the special agent’s report .
He is charged with maliciously damaging by fire a building used for interstate commerce and as a place of activity affecting interstate commerce. Soghomonian is currently in custody. He was scheduled to appear at a detention hearing later Thursday. The Associated Press left a telephone message seeking comment with his public defender.
Prosecutors argue that Soghomonian is a danger to the community and a flight risk and should remain detained.
“The risk to the structure and the lives of the building’s occupants was significant, demonstrating defendant’s disregard for the safety of the building’s residents and the community at large,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Lasher in his petition. “The defendant then fled the area to avoid detection and arrest.”
In August, Illinois State Police, who had stopped Soghomonian for a possible traffic violation, seized an AK-47 rifle and two magazines from his vehicle, along with 11.5 grams of cannabis and a book titled “How to Blow up a Pipeline,” prosecutors say. The book makes “an impassioned call for the climate movement to escalate its tactics in the face of ecological collapse.”
During the traffic stop, Soghomonian produced an invalid Oregon driver’s license, prosecutors say. He told police he was traveling to the West Coast. In August alone, his vehicle had been in New York, then in Illinois, California and Pennsylvania, Lasher wrote in his petition.
When Soghomonian was in his mid-teens, he was arrested in 2005 in Glendale, California, for assault with a firearm, according to prosecutors, who say the case later appears to have been dismissed.
“In other words, the suspect has a history of roving, firearm possession, and a lack of candor with law enforcement, all of which increase his risk of fleeing,” Lasher wrote.