Pittsburgh man pleads guilty to leaving bag filled with explosives outside downtown Tower at PNC Plaza

Yesterday, 53-year-old Matthew Michanowicz, a former resident of Pittsburgh’s Duquesne Heights neighborhood, pleaded guilty in federal court to one charge of violating federal firearms law after he confessed to placing explosive devices near a downtown Pittsburgh building back in May 2020.

On May 31, 2020, Michanowicz knowingly and unlawfully possessed firearms, that is, three destructive devices, which were not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record. Specifically, Michanowicz admitted that, on or about May 31, 2020, he placed three, unregistered homemade destructive devices in a camouflage backpack at 2 PNC Plaza in downtown Pittsburgh.

Investigators with ATF and the FBI, working in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police and the Allegheny County Sheriff’s Office, said that the explosive devices found in that backpack  were constructed of “spent OC vapor grenades” that the police in Pittsburgh had used previously. Specific components found in the backpack comprising the explosives matched components found during a raid on Michanowicz’s home.

At the time of his June, 2020, grand jury indictment, former U.S. Attorney Scott Brady said Michanowicz was not a protester but an agitator intent on violence. ~ The Post Gazette

The incident involving Michanowicz and his bag full of explosives took place during a tumultuous time in our nation’s history, when hundreds of protesters had marched and assembled throughout downtown Pittsburgh to protest police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. Michanowicz told police he’d gone downtown on May 31 to see the damage left over from the protests, but claimed he had no bag with him, according to Trib Live.  Video surveillance in the area however, showed that Michanowicz was lying.

… security camera footage in the area actually showed Michanowicz leaving the backpack the day before. He rode up on a bike, looked around for a few seconds and then left the backpack in the bushes.  ATF agents raided his home and found fuses matching the ones attached to the explosives, a can of spray foam insulation and a syringe filled with liquid that smelled similar to what was found inside the devices.  ~ WPIX

Senior U.S. District Judge Donetta W. Ambrose, overseeing the case, scheduled Michanowic’s sentencing for December 13, 2021, at 10:00 a.m. The law provides for a total sentence of not more than ten years in prison, a fine of $250,000, or both.

(Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Pennsylvania)

(Cover Mugshot, Matthew Michanowicz pleaded guilty to leaving a backpack with homemade explosives outside of a downtown office tower. Image credit:  Allegheny County Jail/Allegheny County Jail)

Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today   /   Follow Richard on Facebook and Twitter