The suspect, Alex Brizzi, 25, of Elkridge, Maryland, was shot and
wounded by police after trying to deliver a flash drive with video
about the end of the world during Thursday's incident at the offices
of WBFF-TV.
Police Commissioner Kevin Davis told a news conference that there
was no connection to organized terrorism.
Even though the bomb was fake, "the fear of what he had shut down an
entire community and scared a whole lot of people," he said in
announcing the charges.
Brizzi faces charges of second-degree arson and first-degree
malicious burning, both felonies. He also faces misdemeanor charges
of arson threat, four counts of reckless endangerment and possessing
a phony explosive device.
The suspect's father, Ed Brizzi, told NBC's WBAL-TV that his son had
had problems with depression in recent years.
"About two weeks ago, Alex had some kind of a breakdown and came to
us and said he had a vision from God and that he thought the world
was going to end on June 3," he said.
"I think that's why he went to Fox, to try and warn all the people
that the world was going to end on June 3."
Brizzi set his car's gas tank on fire in the WBFF parking lot. He
then entered the building's vestibule dressed in a hedgehog suit and
a surgical mask, an outfit associated with Japanese anime culture,
Davis said.
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He also had strapped on a life preserver with chocolate bars wrapped
in foil, wires and a motherboard taken from a smoke detector.
He asked that WBFF broadcast his message, and the station was
evacuated.
Brizzi was shot three times when he emerged from the station
vestibule and refused police orders to take a hand from his pockets.
He kept his hand on a fake detonator despite police orders to take
it away, Davis said.
He is in serious but stable condition at a hospital, police said.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by Cynthia
Osterman)
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