Five sentenced in case of 2020 firebombing, vandalism targeting ASP, LRPD, NLRPD
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Authorities said five people have been given federal prison time in connection with the firebombings and vandalization of law enforcement vehicles in central Arkansas in the summer of 2020.
Officials with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas said Mujera Benjamin Lung’aho, Brittany Dawn Jeffrey, Emily Nowlin, Aline A. Espinosa-Villegas and Renea Goddard have been sentenced in the case. Jeffrey had already been sentenced but the other four were sentenced Thursday.
Authorities said the case began after a string of incidents of violence and vandalism that happened in late August and early September in 2022 in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests. On Aug. 25 and into Aug. 26, investigators said the group traveled to the Little Rock Police Department Northwest Substation with Molotov cocktails but left once they noticed several officers in the area.
According to investigators, the group then went to Shannon Hills, broke into a marked police car, cut a tire and stole a toolbox from the car. After that, the group went to LRPD’s 12th Street Substation and vandalized more patrol cars. Lung’aho and another threw Molotov cocktails at the LRPD patrol vehicles. According to surveillance video, a Molotov cocktail was lit but burned out as it was thrown over the fence.
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On Aug. 28, police said Lung’aho, Goddard, Nowlin, and Espinosa traveled to the Arkansas State Police Headquarters with Molotov cocktails. Lung’aho cut a section of a chain-link fence, and he and the others entered the property through the hole in the fence and vandalized multiple ASP vehicles. Authorities said Lung’aho threw a Molotov cocktail at a patrol vehicle that exploded. The explosion led to the vehicle catching fire and being destroyed.
On Sep. 3, police said the group destroyed a North Little Rock Police Department vehicle with a Molotov cocktail
Lung’aho, who officials said was the leader of the group, was given a 66-month federal prison sentence and is ordered to pay $86,099.37 in restitution.
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Nowlin and Goddard were sentenced to 18 months and ordered to pay $35,956.31. Jeffrey received a 17-month sentence and was ordered to pay $529.30. Espinosa-Villegas was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $34,356.31 in restitution.
“There is no justification for violent acts targeting our law enforcement community,” U.S. Attorney Jonathan D. Ross said. “The use of Molotov cocktails to destroy law enforcement property is not a form of legitimate protest; rather, it is a troubling escalation of gratuitous violence that seeks to stoke embers of anarchy in our community, and it will not be tolerated in the Eastern District of Arkansas.”
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The investigation was conducted by the ATF, NLRPD, LRPD Arkansas State Police, and Shannon Hills Police Department.
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