A man was arrested Sunday for allegedly lighting a fire outside the Burlington, Vt., office of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), authorities said.<\/p>\n
Shant Soghomonian, also known as Michael Soghomonian, is charged with using fire to damage the building, according to the U.S. attorney\u2019s office for Vermont. No injuries were reported, the office said, and a motive remained unclear as of Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Soghomonian entered the Church Street building Friday morning and headed directly to the third floor, where Sanders\u2019s Vermont office is located, the U.S. attorney\u2019s office said in a statement. Security video footage showed the 35-year-old man spraying a liquid near the door of the office, then lighting the area with a handheld lighter.<\/p>\n
A \u201csignificant\u201d blaze began, engulfing the door and hindering multiple staffers from fleeing, according to a statement from the Burlington Police Department. Soghomonian then fled the building.<\/p>\n
The fire damaged the door\u2019s exterior, and the hallway, and set off the building\u2019s sprinklers. The sprinkler system \u201clargely extinguished the fire,\u201d the police department said. Authorities responded at 10:45 a.m.<\/p>\n
Sanders was not present when the incident occurred, according to the police department. The agency did not disclose how many staffers were in the office at the time.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the senator said he was \u201cdeeply grateful\u201d to local, state and federal law enforcement for responding to the fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am also thankful that none of the many people who were in the office building at the time of the fire were injured,\u201d he added. \u201cI appreciate the outpouring of support and well-wishes for me and my staff. We are proud to be able to continue to serve Vermonters during these challenging times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soghomonian, previously of the Northridge neighborhood in California, could face a maximum of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 if convicted. A lawyer \u201chas not yet been identified\u201d for him, the U.S. attorney\u2019s office said in its statement.<\/p>\n
Multiple agencies investigated Friday\u2019s incident, including the Burlington Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Vermont State Police and U.S. Capitol Police.<\/p>\n
Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak said in a statement on Sunday that she was grateful for the collaboration, and added that her office \u201cwill continue to be in close communication as their office navigates the impacts of this incident.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A man was arrested Sunday for allegedly lighting a fire outside the Burlington, Vt., office of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), authorities said. Shant Soghomonian, also known as Michael Soghomonian, is charged with using fire to damage the building, according to the U.S. attorney\u2019s office for Vermont. No injuries were reported, the office said, and a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2867,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}