A San Fernando Valley Army veteran was convicted Wednesday for attempting to bomb a rally in Long Beach in 2019, officials said.
Mark Steven Domingo, 28, of Reseda, was found guilty of providing material support to terrorism and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, according to a news release from the United States Attorney’s Office in the Central District of California.
Domingo has been in federal custody since he was arrested in April 2019 and faces a maximum sentence of life in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
He was accused of plotting an attack at an expected white supremacist rally on April 26, 2019 as retribution for the New Zealand mosque shootings that left 51 people dead weeks earlier.
An investigation was launched after Domingo posted on online forums where “he expressed support for violent jihad, a desire to seek retribution for attacks against Muslims, and a willingness to become a martyr,” the release states.
Domingo decided to bomb the Long Beach rally after considering various attacks – including targeting Jewish people, churches, and police officers, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
He asked a confederate – who actually was working with the FBI as part of the investigation – to invite a bomb-maker into the scheme, the release states.
Domingo then purchased and provided to the confederate and the bomb-maker – who was an undercover law enforcement officer – several hundred 3.5-inch nails to be used as shrapnel for the bombs, which he specifically chose because they were long enough to penetrate organs in the human body, the release says.
Domingo drove his confederate and the undercover officer to Long Beach to scout the location that he planned to attack, and he allegedly talked about finding the most crowded areas so he could kill the most people.
On April 26, 2019, Domingo received what he thought were two live bombs, but were actually inert explosive devices delivered by an undercover law enforcement officer. He was arrested that same day with one of the bombs in his hands, the release states.
The case was part of an investigation by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, which includes the FBI, the Los Angeles Police Department, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and the Long Beach Police Department.
He is scheduled to appear in court on November 1.
