Person Suspected of Torching UC Berkeley Police Car Is Indicted by Federal Grand Jury

The person suspected of igniting Molotov cocktails under a UC Berkeley police vehicle last month, as protests over the war in Gaza roiled campuses across the nation, has been indicted by a federal grand jury.

Casey Robert Goonan, 34, now faces formal charges after the grand jury this week signaled there was enough evidence to prosecute. The federal indictment, issued Tuesday, includes two counts of arson and one count of possession of an unregistered firearm. Goonan, who is currently in custody at Santa Rita Jail, faces serious prison time and hefty fines if found guilty.

Goonan was arrested June 17 in connection with four arson attacks — including the firebombing of the UC Berkeley police vehicle — after an investigation led by state arson investigators along with federal agents and university police, according to Cal Fire. They initially faced state charges in Alameda County before federal prosecutors took over the case.

After the police vehicle was torched early the morning of June 1, the suspect returned to document the aftermath, blogging photos under a headline proclaiming “Student Intifada,” according to a statement from an FBI agent included in the criminal complaint.

Defense attorney Jeff Wozniak reiterated Wednesday that Goonan, whom he described as a Bay Area native with a Ph.D in African American studies, will fight the charges and said the case had been politicized because of Goonan’s anti-war activism.

“There’s a long history of prosecutors trying to take people’s political beliefs and their music and their art and things that they have said out of context to try to make them guilty by association,” Wozniak said. “Dr. Goonan’s political beliefs in a free Palestine and against the ongoing genocide in Gaza are well established, but those beliefs do not make Dr. Goonan guilty of these allegations.”

Wozniak also called the inclusion of an unregistered firearm charge “a strange charging decision,” noting that it was likely related to the alleged use of an explosive device and that “there’s no gun or what we would typically think of as a firearm involved in these allegations.”

Goonan is expected to plead not guilty in court on Friday. If convicted, they face five to 20 years in prison for each of the arson counts, up to 10 years for the firearm count, and a $250,000 penalty for each of the three counts.

The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment, writing it cannot comment on an active case.