Florida Lawyer Attempted To Bomb Chinese Embassy

Credit: Google Maps screenshot.

WASHINGTON – A Florida lawyer pleaded guilty today to a three-count superseding information charging him in the September 2023 attempted bombing outside the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Washington, D.C., and a November 2022 bombing of a sculpture depicting communist leaders Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong in San Antonio, Texas.

Christopher Rodriguez, 45, of Panama City, Florida, a licensed attorney, pleaded guilty today to damaging property occupied by a foreign government, explosive materials—malicious damage to federal property, and receipt or possession of an unregistered firearm (destructive device).

According to court documents, on September 23-24, 2023, Rodriguez drove from his home in Panama City, Fla., to Northern Virginia with a rifle and 15 pounds of explosive material. En route, he stopped in Harrisonburg and Charlottesville, Virginia, to buy a black backpack, nitrile gloves, and a burner cell phone. 

On September 24, he parked his car in Arlington, Va., and used the burner phone to arrange for a taxi to drive him to within a few blocks of the Chinese Embassy. 

Sometime between midnight and 3:00 a.m. near the back wall of the Embassy in Northwest Washington, Rodriguez placed the black backpack filled with explosives next to a streetlight. Rodriguez then attempted to detonate the explosives by shooting at the backpack with a rifle. 

Rodriguez missed his target, and the device failed to detonate. Law enforcement officers later recovered the backpack containing explosive material, three shell casings, and bullet fragmentations from the ground along the outer perimeter wall of the Chinese Embassy. Impact marks were found on the Embassy wall near the bullet fragments behind the backpack.

Also according to court documents, DNA obtained from the black backpack was found to be consistent with DNA evidence obtained from a previous arrest of Rodriguez in June 2021 in California. During the California incident, Rodriguez possessed three firearms and apparent explosive material consistent with the explosives used during the Chinese Embassy attack. DNA evidence obtained from Rodriguez pursuant to a buccal swab warrant later confirmed this DNA match.

Between November 5 and 7, 2022, according to court documents, Rodriguez rented a vehicle in Pensacola, Florida, and drove to San Antonio, Texas.

At approximately 2:25 a.m. on November 7, Rodriguez scaled an eight-foot fence to enter a courtyard on the 300 block of West Commerce Street, San Antonio. 

Inside the courtyard, he placed two canisters of explosive materials at the base of a satirical steel sculpture titled “Miss Mao Trying to Poise Herself at the Top of Lenin’s Head.” 

At about 2:30 a.m. on November 7, Rodriguez used a rifle to shoot at the canisters at the base of the statue, causing an explosion that caused significant damage to the Miss Mao sculpture.

The ATF arrested Rodriguez on November 4, 2023, in Lafayette, Louisiana. The Florida man has been held since that date.