Well… family Thanksgiving dinners are going to be a little more awkward now.
A Trump-loving grandmother turned in her own 18-year-old grandon as a suspect who threw explosives at the Portland courthouse.
A photo of the young man accused of throwing explosives at the Portland courthouse went viral.
The grandmother recognized the vest that she bought her grandson.
She bought it for him to protect him from rubber bullets, but didn't realize that he would use it to participate in attempting to destroy federal property.
See more details, including the grandma's tweet defending turning him in, below:
Thanks to his grandma, Gabriel Agard-Berryhill was in court on Friday and was charged with arson.
If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison for bombing a federal courthouse.
The attack happened on Tuesday night and was caught on user videos on social media as well as security cameras.
The Daily Mail reports that his grandma turned him in after recognizing the vest she bought him in the videos that she saw:
A teenager in Portland charged with arson over the bombing of a federal courthouse was arrested after his grandmother tipped off police.
Gabriel Agard-Berryhill, 18, appeared in court in the Oregon city on Friday, and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
He was arrested after his Trump-supporting grandmother Karla Fox saw footage of Tuesday night's attack, and tweeted that her grandson was behind it. She had bought him the vest he was wearing during the alleged attack.
'This is my only grandson, I love him to death, and didn't know he was going to do such a bad thing, I had been posting several things about the antifa and BLM, he knows I am against those riots bigtime...he chose his poison,' she tweeted, from the username @Trumpsgirl2020.
Donald Trump has strongly condemned the Portland protests, which emerged after the May 25 killing of George Floyd and have worsened since Trump sent federal troops into the Democrat-controlled city.
Agard-Berryhill was among protesters in Portland who allegedly resorted to violence on Tuesday night.
Footage on social media captured a loud bang and then flames emerging from the building.
Security cameras filmed the attack, which happened at approximately 11:50pm at the Hatfield Federal Courthouse.
A figure wearing a vest bearing the word 'Icons' threw a 'large incendiary object,' which entered the building's portico area, prosecutors said, and landed near plywood sheeting affixed to the building's facade.
A few seconds later, the object exploded, igniting a fire near the building's main entrance.
Police said the concussion could be 'heard and felt more than a block away.'
The 12:11am explosion was so loud that even members in a private chatroom used to coordinate protest and riots expressed surprise.
'Holy f*** that was the loudest explosion I've heard ever,' wrote one.
'I felt that in my f–king bones,' wrote another.
Federal law enforcement personnel collected various items near the site of the explosion and sent them to a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) laboratory for further analysis.
Agard-Berryhill was identified by his vest; his grandmother's tweet; and the review of the vest she posted online.
'I got this for my grandson who's a protestor downtown, he uses it every night and says its does the job,' she wrote, posting a photo of Agard-Berryhill in his new vest and giving the clothing five stars.
Had it not been for his grandma, the odds are high that Aggard-Berryhill could have gotten away with it.
But as his grandma said, he chose his poison.
Actions have consequences and Aggard-Berryhill may have to learn the hard way.
The grandma claims she didn't know about her grandson's politics.
She also claims that she didn't know that he was participating in the riots in Portland.
The New York Post has more details on how the bomber was identified:
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.”
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.
She claims she did not know her grandson’s politics and was unaware the Portland protests, now in their second month, were marked by nightly rioting.
Fox says when she last saw her grandson last week, he said that he was peacefully protesting and “protected a girl.” A man in the same vest, identified as “Rico” in the affidavit, appears in a viral July 18 video using a shield to protect a nude protester dubbed “Naked Athena.”
“I believed all his stories,” Fox says. “He said he was just hanging out at Riot Ribs [an anarchist food co-op] and doing peaceful things.”
“I don’t condone any of this,” Fox told The Post. “I am amazed at all of these events.”
If only the Democrats and the media took these crimes as seriously as this grandma, perhaps the violence in Portland should stop.
Isn't that what we should want? Peace, law, and order?!
It would be difficult to turn in your own family member, so we commend this grandmother for doing the right thing!
Hopefully the Democrats and their allies in the media eventually learn to do the same.
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