Suspect enters innocent plea in burning of North Little Rock police car

Mujera Benjamin Lungaho pleaded innocent Wednesday in federal court to three charges related to the Sept. 3 firebombing of a North Little Rock police cruiser and related damage to a chain-link fence surrounding the Rose City substation.

An indictment handed up Oct. 6 by a federal grand jury accuses Lungaho, 30, of North Little Rock of conspiring with other people known and unknown to the grand jury to damage the car, known as Unit 1801, that was parked in the substation parking lot; malicious use of an explosive -- a Molotov cocktail -- to damage the vehicle; and use of an incendiary device during a crime of violence.

Lungaho was arrested last month on a federal criminal complaint, a precursor to a grand-jury review of the accusations against him. He appeared Sept. 17 before a magistrate judge in a videoconference from the jail, and was released to his mother under conditions including home detention with electronic monitoring.

After his September hearing and before his indictment, a redacted version of the complaint was made publicly available. Prosecutors asked that the unredacted version remain sealed because it identified other people who could be facing charges as well but might not know it yet.

The lightly redacted document shows that according to Shannon Hicks, a senior special agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Lungaho's actions are related to protests that began across the United States, including in Central Arkansas, after the May 25 death of George Floyd, a Minneapolis man, while police held him down during an arrest in Minneapolis.

Hicks' affidavit, filed to persuade a judge that probable cause existed for the issuance of an arrest warrant, alleges that Lungaho attended a July 18 protest outside the state Capitol, as captured by a video from that event. She wrote that he was also determined to be one of two people who were captured on game cameras early July 9 vandalizing the Oakland Historic Cemetery at 2101 Barber St., spray-painting messages including "Black Lives Matter" and "Abolish Police," and breaking headstones, causing thousands of dollars in damage.

The affidavit cites other incidents that law enforcement officers suspect of being related, though Lungaho isn't charged in those other incidents.

They include a protest about 11 p.m. Aug. 25 outside the Little Rock police substation at 3999 W. 12th St., followed hours later by the discovery of punctured tires of marked police vehicles, and two unexploded Molotov cocktails, in a fenced-in area behind the substation.

They also include the vandalism and burning of a marked Highway Patrol car early Aug. 20 in a fenced area outside the Arkansas State Police headquarters in Little Rock. It notes that the chain link fence had been cut, and that a Molotov cocktail had been thrown through a broken rear window of the Chevrolet Tahoe, burning part of the interior of the vehicle. It says a video captured three people wearing dark clothing and backpacks entering the area at 4:46 a.m. by cutting through the fence, then puncturing tires on numerous police vehicles and spray-painting one with the words "Stop Killing Us."

It says that on Sept. 1, a group of people with whom Lungaho regularly participated in protests attended a Little Rock Board of Directors meeting and presented a list of "demands" to the board. As the group left the room, it says, Lungaho was recorded yelling, "Mayor Frank Scott, you've heard from the people. You need to listen. ... You've heard us. You need to listen. You ain't gonna like it if you don't."

The group then went outside City Hall and stood on Broadway, obstructing traffic until officers emerged from the building and dispersed them, Hicks wrote.

The affidavit goes on to note the "tagging" or defacing of property with graffiti, two days later, in the pre-dawn hours of Sept. 3, in or near downtown Little Rock. The property included a Fallen Officer memorial outside police headquarters at 700 W. Markham St. and two buildings -- the Little Rock District Court building at 600 W. Markham St. and the Pulaski County prosecuting attorney's office at 224 S. Spring St. -- as well as police vehicles. The graffiti included messages such as "Defund the Police" and "Arrest Killer Cops."

Hicks wrote that red, hot pink and orange spray paint was used in the vandalism, and that when Lungaho was arrested at his house on Mills Street, where he lives with his mother, the clothes and shoes he was wearing had reddish or orange paint spatter and smears. It said that as he saw officers approach, he ran off and threw away his cellphone, on which he appeared to be deleting data. Officers recovered the phone, which the affidavit said showed a photograph of the burning North Little Rock police car "during the incipient stage of fire development."

The photograph was time-stamped at 3:10 a.m., which is about 10 minutes before police on routine patrol discovered the fire and called the Fire Department.

The phone also revealed numerous text-message conversations between Lungaho and other people before and after the fire, according to the affidavit.

Lungaho's jury trial was tentatively set Wednesday to begin Nov. 30 before Chief U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr.

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