A former US Marine, Chance Brannon, has been sentenced to nine years in prison for firebombing a Planned Parenthood clinic in Southern California and plotting other attacks. Brannon, who was an active-duty member of the Marine Corps stationed at Camp Pendleton at the time of the firebombing, pleaded guilty in November. The US Attorney’s Office revealed that Brannon had plans for additional attacks on a second Planned Parenthood clinic, a Southern California Edison substation, and an LGBTQ pride night celebration at Dodger Stadium, all in furtherance of a “race war” fueled by his Nazi worldview.
The Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division stated that Brannon violently attacked the reproductive healthcare facility and plotted potentially deadly assaults to advance his hate-fueled agenda. The FBI Los Angeles Field Office welcomed Brannon’s sentencing, with the acting assistant director in charge emphasizing Brannon’s deep-rooted hatred and extremist views that inspired him to target individuals or groups who did not conform to his neo-Nazi worldview, leading to a violent attack that could have resulted in innocent people being harmed.
In February and March 2022, Brannon, along with his co-defendants Tibet Ergul and Xavier Batten, conspired to use a Molotov cocktail to destroy a commercial property. While considering various targets, including the Anti-Defamation League office in San Diego, Brannon ultimately chose to target a Planned Parenthood clinic. Surveillance footage of the bombing showed Brannon and Ergul throwing the Molotov cocktail at the front door of the medical facility, with plans to return and destroy another clinic using a second Molotov cocktail after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Despite their plans, law enforcement near the clinic they intended to target caused Brannon and Ergul to abandon their second attack. The pair then discussed starting a race war by attacking an electrical substation in Orange County to disrupt the functioning of a power grid. Brannon kept a file containing the plan on a hidden thumb drive bearing the Marine Corps motto, which he disguised as a military-style necklace. Additionally, Brannon used racial slurs for various minority groups, made hateful comments towards non-white individuals, and discussed “cleansing” the United States of specific ethnic groups.
Leading up to his arrest in June, Brannon had expressed his eagerness for a race war and had researched how to attack Dodger Stadium on a pride celebration night using a remote-detonated device. Brannon and Ergul were arrested two days before the event, with Brannon sharing extremist neo-Nazi views and expressing admiration for Adolf Hitler. He had also begun planning to rob Jewish residents in Hollywood Hills just days before his arrest, and was found in possession of illegal weapons at the time of his arrest. The US District Judge overseeing his sentencing described Brannon’s actions as cruel and indefensible domestic terrorism. Brannon’s co-defendants, Ergul and Batten, have also pleaded guilty and are scheduled to be sentenced in May.
