A man planted bombs hours after a Black Lives Matter protest in Pittsburgh. He was sentenced to probation.
No one could see the homemade bombs Matthew Michanowicz was carrying as he rode his bike in downtown Pittsburgh on May 31, 2020.
The city was a tinder box that afternoon. Six days earlier, a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd, sparking protests around the country. The day before, one in Pittsburgh devolved into a riot. Dozens were arrested. City leaders imposed a curfew.
The next day, Michanowicz rode his bike to check out the aftermath. He wheeled himself to a plaza below a skyscraper in the heart of downtown, planted the backpack with the three bombs he’d made and left.
They never exploded, but prosecutors said they could have hurt or killed someone.Police found the bombs the next morning, quickly homed in on Michanowicz as a suspect and arrested him, federal prosecutors said in court documents. He was indicted on charges of illegally possessing three destructive devices, to which he pleaded guilty in August. On Monday, facing a 10-year prison sentence, Michanowicz, 53, avoided more time behind bars, instead getting time served and three years’ probation. He has to serve the first six months under house arrest.Michanowicz’s lawyer, Ken Haber, told The Post in a phone interview that the judge might have considered his client’s recent mental health issues and personal struggles. Within a year of placing the bombs, Michanowicz lost his job as a successful medical salesman who worked with neurosurgeons. His father and a good friend died. He got divorced.
“I think the judge was somewhat convinced that he had a breakdown,” Haber said, adding that his client has stressed that he never meant for the devices to go off.