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Texas Man Arrested For Trying To Plant Bomb On Confederate Statue
Texas Man Arrested For Trying To Plant Bomb On Confederate Statue
Photo credit: Steve Gonzales for AP

Texas Man Arrested For Trying To Plant Bomb On Confederate Statue

Texas Man Arrested For Trying To Plant Bomb On Confederate Statue Photo credit: Steve Gonzales for AP

A Houston man has been arrested after allegedly attempting to plant explosives on a Confederate statue on Monday.

As the Associated Press reports:

Prosecutors allege 25-year-old Andrew Schneck was caught on Saturday evening near a statue of Richard Dowling, a lieutenant in the Confederate army. A Houston park ranger found Schneck holding two boxes with duct tape and wires as well as a bottle and a small tube containing compounds that tests later revealed were explosive materials, according to a criminal complaint.

Schneck was charged with attempting to maliciously damage or destroy property receiving federal financial assistance. He made his initial court appearance on Monday and was to remain in federal custody until a detention hearing on Thursday.

Authorities allege that Schneck was caught with a plastic bottle with what is likely nitroglycerin, an active ingredient in the manufacture of explosives, and with a small aluminum tube that contained a white powder that tests showed was Hexamethylene triperoxide diamine, which is used as an initiating or primary explosive. When he was confronted by the park ranger, Schneck tried to drink the bottle that had the nitroglycerin but spit out the liquid and then poured it out on the ground.

The statue is of Richard W. "Dick" Dowling, whose Confederate unit defeated a Union invasion force at the Battle of Sabine Pass in 1863 and was hailed a war hero until his death in 1867. According to a criminal complaint, when the Houston park ranger asked Schneck if he wanted to harm the statue he "responded that he did and that he (Schneck) did not 'like that guy.'"

WATCH: Protester Pulled Down a Confederate Statue In Durham, North Carolina

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner recently announced that it was compiling its inventory of Confederate statues to determine if anything should be done with them.

Source: apnews.com