U.S. Marine and accused accomplice charged with firebombing OC Planned Parenthood

A U.S. Marine and a suspected accomplice accused of using a Molotov cocktail to firebomb a Planned Parenthood clinic in Costa Mesa were arrested on Wednesday, June 14, and are facing federal charges.

Chance Brannon, a 23-year-old San Juan Capistrano man and active-duty Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton, and Tibet Ergul, a 21-year-old Irvine man, are suspected of carrying out what a federal official described as a “brazen” attack during the early morning hours of March 12, 2022.

Each man is charged with using an explosive or fire to damage real property affecting interstate commerce, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Donald Alway, an assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said in a statement that the two men committed a “depraved act of launching an improvised explosive device into a public facility,” while U. S. Attorney Martin Estrada called it a “brazen attack that targeted a facility that provides critical healthcare services to thousands of people in Orange County.”

“While it is fortunate that no one was physically harmed and responders were able to prevent the clinic from being destroyed, the defendants’ violent actions are entirely unacceptable,” Estrada added.

Two masked figures in dark clothing with their faces covered walked up to a dumpster enclosure in a parking lot next to the Planned Parenthood just before 1 a.m. and watched the front of the building for several minutes, says a sworn statement by a FBI agent filed with the court.

The men jogged toward the front of the building, with one holding a large object in a gloved hand, the agent wrote.

The two figures then hunched down, the agent wrote, appeared to ignite the device and throw it at the front door. As the two ran away, the wall next to the glass door erupted in fire and the flames spread up the wall and across the ceiling outside the door, the agent added.

Fire crews extinguished the blaze.

Investigators determined the device was a glass container with gauze sponges soaked in gasoline.

The clinic closed that morning, cancelling around 30 appointments, prosecutors said.

In January, FBI officials announced a $25,000 reward for information leading to the identification and arrest of the two suspects tied to the attack and released surveillance photos of them. That reward followed similar offers for information tied to attacks and threats against reproductive health services across the country, including in Colorado, Tennessee, New York, North Carolina, Washington and Oregon.

After the announcement of the reward, someone called the FBI and identified the two suspects as Brannon and Ergul, the FBI agent said in a statement.

That caller provided investigators with a text message Ergul had sent apparently admitting his role in the incident, including a photograph of the suspected Molotov cocktail and a message from Ergul in which he wished he “could’ve recorded the combustion,” the agent wrote.

The photo appeared to have been taken in a vehicle the caller recognized as Brannon’s car, the agent added.

During their first appearance late Wednesday at the federal courthouse in Santa Ana, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathrynne Seiden told Magistrate Judge Douglas F. McCormick that a search earlier in the day had turned up illegal firearms and neo-Nazi paraphernalia belonging to Brannon.

The prosecutor described finding disturbing material — including an anti-Semitic drawing of a Jewish person with a reference to “keeping America pure” — that authorities say belonged to Brannon. The prosecutor also described Brannon as a flight risk, telling the judge that his biological father owns an online betting operation in Costa Rica that has been suspected by authorities in that country of being involved in money laundering.

Brannon’s attorney, Kate Corrigan, asked the judge to allow Brannon’s family to put up bond so he could be released pending trial. Corrigan said Brannon had no criminal history and no contact with his father in Costa Rica. But the judge was unconvinced, saying he was “gravely concerned” about the firearms and the material found during the search.

Brannon was ordered to remain in federal custody.

Ergul’s attorney asked that his detention hearing be continued until Friday afternoon, with his client remaining in federal lockup in the meantime.

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