Marshall W. Leonard was so angry after a Mississippi Walmart stopped selling the Confederate flag, police say he bombed the North Gloster super store over the weekend.
Tupelo Police Chief Bart Aguirre says a vehicle pulled up to the store at 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning.
“A white male got out, lit the package and threw it in the vestibule,” Aguirre says, according to the Clarion-Ledger. “There was an employee on break, and the suspect told him, ‘You better run.’
“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.”
WTVA reports Leonard allegedly tried to detonate his homemade device at two other stores.
Leonard is reportedly a supporter of the Confederate and Mississippi state flags and led a boycott of Walmart stores after the retail giant announced it would stop selling the flags earlier this year.
Investigators believe the controversy over the flag was the motivation for his act.
Leonard, who has a record in Illinois and Wisconsin, is charged with “felony charges of planting or placing an explosive or weapon of mass destruction.”
Police claim Leonard also targeted the local newspaper for threats.
“Journal corporate, you are on final warning,” he wrote Oct. 28 on the Daily Journal Facebook page, the Clarion-Journal reports. “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. I’m not kidding. No messing around anymore!”
Police discovered they had their man after he was stopped for a traffic violation.