The FBI revealed little about the man’s arrest, but confirmed it was related to the search of a Central Washington home on May Day.
A Central Washington man whose home was searched the day of May Day protests in Seattle pleaded not guilty Friday morning to a charge of receiving components for an incendiary-explosive device.
Melvin Thomas Neifert, 41, of Selah, Yakima County, was arrested about 9 a.m. Thursday by the FBI Seattle Division’s Inland Northwest Joint Terrorism Task Force.
The FBI revealed little about the arrest at a Yakima house but confirmed it related to comments made on May 1 by Seattle FBI Special Agent In Charge Frank Montoya Jr. during a May Day news briefing on the Seattle disturbances.
At that time, Montoya said the FBI had questioned a man in Central Washington and seized items that could be used for incendiary devices. He did not reveal whether the man had any connection with the violence that erupted in Seattle on May Day.
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Montoya said social media played a part in his agents’ contacting the person. A day later, the FBI disclosed a search warrant had been served in Selah.
Neifert pleaded not guilty to the charge during his arraignment in U.S. District Court in Yakima, according to the Yakima Herald-Republic. A bail hearing has been set for Wednesday.
Neifert’s family members, who attended the Friday hearing, declined to comment, the newspaper reported.
A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Washington indicted Neifert on Aug. 17 on a charge of receiving an explosive in interstate commerce between Feb. 21 and May 1 with intent to intimidate.
According to the indictment, Neifert received potassium nitrate and other components for an incendiary-explosive device consisting of a nitrate explosive mixture with potassium nitrate and sugar, with the knowledge and intent that it would be used to intimidate another person.
No other details were provided and an affidavit used to carry out the search of Neifert’s home remained sealed.
The FBI task force began its investigation in February, working with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Eastern Washington, FBI spokeswoman Ayn Dietrich-Williams in Seattle said in a statement.
The Selah Police Department, the Yakima County Sheriff’s Office and the Yakima office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives assisted in the investigation, she said.
During a May Day anti-capitalist march, nine people were arrested and five Seattle police officers were injured, police said.
One officer was bitten in the arm while arresting a suspect who attempted to assault him, police said. Another was hit by a Molotov cocktail, while a third was struck in the face by a rock thrown from the crowd, according to police. Two other officers sustained minor injuries.
Police said at least three cars were vandalized and windows were shattered at a coffee shop and a bank, and a Roman candle fired from the crowd reportedly damaged a window at a residential building at Fourth Avenue and Virginia Street, police said.
The anti-capitalist march followed a separate, peaceful May Day March for Workers and Immigrant Rights.