Feds say police found a pickup truck full of bombs and guns near Capitol insurrection as wide-ranging investigation unfurls
An Alabama man allegedly parked a pickup truck packed with 11 homemade bombs, an assault rifle and a handgun two blocks from the US Capitol building on Wednesday for hours before authorities ever noticed, according to federal prosecutors.
Another man allegedly showed up in the nation's capital with an assault rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition and told acquaintances that he wanted to shoot or run over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, prosecutors said.
The revelations are some of the most unsettling details federal prosecutors have made public this week as they detail the extent of the arsenal available to aid pro-Trump rioters who stormed the Capitol. Other individuals have been accused of taking guns and ammunition onto Capitol grounds and more charges are expected to come as a wide-ranging investigation unfurls.”
The details about the weapons cache in the pickup truck were contained in federal documents charging Lonnie Leroy Coffman of Falkville, Alabama, with federal offenses. A bomb squad detected the arsenal during the scramble to secure the federal complex after it was overrun by pro-Trump rioters and other bombs around Washington, D.C., were found.
The Department of Justice announced charges against 13 Capitol riot-related defendants on Friday, including a West Virginia lawmaker and a man who entered House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office and sat at a staff member's desk.
The insurrection on Capitol Hill has shaken the nation's capital and the descriptions of the charges are adding to a growing understanding of the extremist elements of the crowd.
While Coffman has been arrested and charged with possession of an unregistered firearm and carrying a pistol without a license, Friday's sworn statement from police provides some of the most extreme allegations yet about the amount of danger around the Capitol building on Wednesday.
After hundreds of pro-Trump rioters pushed through barriers set up along the perimeter of the Capitol, demonstrators eventually made their way into the building and the House and Senate floors were evacuated by police.
Only after pleading from aides and congressional allies inside the besieged Capitol did President Donald Trump release a video urging the rioters to "go home," while still fanning their baseless grievances about a stolen election.
Coffman, 70, told police he had mason jars filled with "melted Styrofoam and gasoline." Federal investigators believe that combination, if exploded, would have the effect of napalm "insofar as it causes the flammable liquid to better stick to objects that it hits upon detonation," according to the court record.
Police also found cloth rags and lighters. The court documents said that those items and the explosive-filled mason jars "in close proximity to one another constitute a combination of parts" that could be used as a "destructive device."
Coffman had parked his pickup truck at 9:15 a.m. ET on First St SE on the Hill, near the National Republican Club, commonly called the Capitol Hill Club. That building is within a block of a large US House office building and the Library of Congress, according to the complaint. The truck also had a handgun on the passenger seat and an M4 Carbine assault rifle, along with rifle magazines loaded with ammunition, police said.
When police found and searched him about a block away after dusk, Coffman was also carrying a 9mm handgun and a .22-caliber handgun in each of his front pockets, the police complaint said. None of the weapons found in his truck or on his person were registered to him.
Coffman appeared before a federal judge this week, and is being detained at least until his next court appearance on Tuesday. He has not yet entered a plea in court. The federal public defender representing him didn't respond to a request for comment on the allegations against him on Friday.
The revelations are some of the most unsettling details federal prosecutors have made public this week as they detail the extent of the arsenal available to aid pro-Trump rioters who stormed the Capitol. Other individuals have been accused of taking guns and ammunition onto Capitol grounds and more charges are expected to come as a wide-ranging investigation unfurls.”
The details about the weapons cache in the pickup truck were contained in federal documents charging Lonnie Leroy Coffman of Falkville, Alabama, with federal offenses. A bomb squad detected the arsenal during the scramble to secure the federal complex after it was overrun by pro-Trump rioters and other bombs around Washington, D.C., were found.
The Department of Justice announced charges against 13 Capitol riot-related defendants on Friday, including a West Virginia lawmaker and a man who entered House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office and sat at a staff member's desk.
The insurrection on Capitol Hill has shaken the nation's capital and the descriptions of the charges are adding to a growing understanding of the extremist elements of the crowd.
While Coffman has been arrested and charged with possession of an unregistered firearm and carrying a pistol without a license, Friday's sworn statement from police provides some of the most extreme allegations yet about the amount of danger around the Capitol building on Wednesday.
After hundreds of pro-Trump rioters pushed through barriers set up along the perimeter of the Capitol, demonstrators eventually made their way into the building and the House and Senate floors were evacuated by police.
Only after pleading from aides and congressional allies inside the besieged Capitol did President Donald Trump release a video urging the rioters to "go home," while still fanning their baseless grievances about a stolen election.
Coffman, 70, told police he had mason jars filled with "melted Styrofoam and gasoline." Federal investigators believe that combination, if exploded, would have the effect of napalm "insofar as it causes the flammable liquid to better stick to objects that it hits upon detonation," according to the court record.
Police also found cloth rags and lighters. The court documents said that those items and the explosive-filled mason jars "in close proximity to one another constitute a combination of parts" that could be used as a "destructive device."
Coffman had parked his pickup truck at 9:15 a.m. ET on First St SE on the Hill, near the National Republican Club, commonly called the Capitol Hill Club. That building is within a block of a large US House office building and the Library of Congress, according to the complaint. The truck also had a handgun on the passenger seat and an M4 Carbine assault rifle, along with rifle magazines loaded with ammunition, police said.
When police found and searched him about a block away after dusk, Coffman was also carrying a 9mm handgun and a .22-caliber handgun in each of his front pockets, the police complaint said. None of the weapons found in his truck or on his person were registered to him.
Coffman appeared before a federal judge this week, and is being detained at least until his next court appearance on Tuesday. He has not yet entered a plea in court. The federal public defender representing him didn't respond to a request for comment on the allegations against him on Friday.
