Prosecutors are asking the judge who set bail for an alleged would-be Tampa terrorist to revoke the bail he set just last week, claiming the defendant is a danger to society.
The request comes days after Judge Thomas McCoun set bond at $200 thousand for Brandon Russell, 21, saying he must wear an ankle monitor, remain at his grandmother’s Orlando home, and adhere to several other conditions if released.
Russell is charged with possessing explosives and bomb making material, items police found when they were called to Russell’s Tampa Palms apartment, along with weapons, white supremacist propaganda, and a framed photo of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Prosecutor Anthony Rickman, who gave legal commentary on this case to Fox 13, explained there is plenty of evidence that Russell was planning an attack.
“The government has an obligation to protect the public and in the government’s mind and in the government’s eyes, this individual is a threat and is a risk and he very well may be so,” Rickman said, who is not associated with this case.
Russell called police when he arrived home from National Guard duty to find that one of his roommates, a recent Muslim convert, had shot his other two roommates, who were neo-Nazis, to death.
Arrested for the slayings of Jeremy Himmelman and Andrew Oneshuk is Devon Arthurs, who is the one who actually led police to Russell’s bomb and weapon stash.