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RNC Suspect Investigated For Texas Mansion Arson

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Sep 9, 2008 7:38 pm US/Central

RNC Suspect Investigated For Texas Mansion Arson

(WCCO) A man arrested during protests during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul is now being investigated for arson at the Texas governor's mansion in June.

Bradley Neil Crowder, 23, of Austin, Texas, is charged with one count of possession of firearms not registered to him after his arrest Sept. 1 in St. Paul. Prosecutors believe Crowder and another man, David Guy McKay, made Molotov cocktails which could then be thrown into a St. Paul parking lot where law enforcement parked their vehicles.

A high level source confirms authorities are now investigating whether Crowder had a role in the June 8 fire that badly damaged the Texas governor's mansion.

The building was not occupied at the time of the fire. Texas Gov. Rick Perry and his wife, Anita, had temporarily moved out of the mansion while a $10 million renovation and maintenance project was completed.

Crowder allegedly belongs to an organization known as the Austin Affinity Group, a group which FBI officials in Texas have been investigating since 2007, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota said in a statement last week.

Both Crowder and McKay are being held in federal custody in Minnesota.  A federal magistrate judge on Tuesday initially called for the release of both, each on $25,000 bond, but the U.S. Attorney's Office requested that a district judge hold a separate detention hearing.  That hearing was set for Wednesday.


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