A 61-year-old Mississippi man will be charged for allegedly bombing a Walmart on Sunday morning, just months after the company said it would stop selling items that contained the Confederate battle flag.
Police said Marshall W. Leonard, of Tupelo, posted threats on the Daily Journal's Facebook page on Wednesday, and apparently followed through with them just a few days later.
"A white male got out, lit the package, and threw it in the vestibule. There was an employee on break, and the suspect told him, 'You better run,'" said Tupelo Police Chief Bart Aguirre,
according to USA Today.
"The employee did run and was away from harm when the package went off. It wasn’t a large explosion. It didn’t cause a lot of damage to the store."
The remnants of the newspaper-wrapped explosive device are now being examined by a crime lab.
"Journal corporate . . . you are on final warning," Leonard had written days earlier on Facebook. "You are part of the problem. As a result of this, y’all are going down, along with Walmart, WTVA, Reeds department store, and all the rest of the anti-American crooks. Get yourself ready . . . the Lord is coming after y'all . . . I’m not kidding. No messing around anymore! Your days are numbered all of ya!"
The Tupelo Daily Journal reported that Leonard was caught after he ran a red light in front of Walmart. He was easy to see, officers said, because he had a large, 4-foot-long Mississippi state flag — which contains the Confederate battle flag — sticking up through the sun roof of his silver Mazda and flapping in the breeze.
"The officer pulled him over for the traffic violation, but when the calls started coming in, we quickly figured out we needed to hang on to this suspect," said Aguirre. "We still have some more interviews to do and still need to search his car before we take him in front of a judge Tuesday."
According to the New York Daily News, Leonard's staunch support of the flag has been the subject of local news reports, and he has attended many rallies protesting the removal of the state flag.
"It has nothing to do with race, it’s all a misconception," Leonard told a local TV station at an Oct. 12 rally at the state Capitol. "Changing the state flag isn’t going to change nothing. There’s still always going to be hate, there’s still always going to be racism."