Man who threw Molotov cocktails at Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s KC office gets 10-year sentence

A 29-year-old man who tried to firebomb the Kansas City office of U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in federal prison.

Eric G. King was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, where he pleaded guilty in March to a charge of using an incendiary device to commit arson.

King, who espoused anarchist and anti-government views, used a hammer to break out a window and hurled two Molotov cocktails at the building on 31st Street just west of Main Street early on the morning of Sept. 11, 2014.

The building was unoccupied and neither device ignited.

On Tuesday, before he was sentenced, King described his disgust at the government’s “oppressive treatment of the poor and persons of color.”

He called the court a “farce.”

“Ten years for breaking a window?” he asked.

King said he was not sorry for what he did and only regretted being caught.

“I would have loved to attack more government buildings,” he said.

In imposing the sentence, U.S. District Judge Gary Fenner told King he was “obviously a sick, deranged and dangerous person.”

The judge said he hoped that King would take advantage of the opportunity for counseling and treatment in prison.

This story was originally published June 28, 2016 at 12:20 PM with the headline "Man who threw Molotov cocktails at Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s KC office gets 10-year sentence."