Mississippi man charged with bombing Walmart to protest Confederate flag ban

Marshall W. Leonard, 61, is accused of bombing a Walmart because it stopped selling the Confederate flag — (Image credit: Twitter/@FOX13Memphis)

Police in Tupelo, Mississippi, are charging Marshall W. Leonard, 61, with throwing a bomb at a local Walmart store early Sunday morning, allegedly to protest the chain's decision to stop selling the Mississippi flag and any other merchandise that contains the Confederate battle flag. If convicted, he faces a sentence of up to life in prison.

A while male believed to be Leonard, a vocal supporter of the Mississippi flag, drove up to the night entrance of the Walmart at 1:30 a.m., "got out, lit the package, and threw it in the vestibule," Tupelo Police Chief Bart Aguirre told the Tupelo Daily Journal. "There was an employee on break, and the suspect told him, 'You better run.' The employee did run and was away from harm when the package went off. It wasn't a large explosion. It didn't cause a lot of damage to the store." Nobody was hurt.

On Facebook last week, Leonard gave a "final warning" to the Daily Journal, the newspaper said Monday. "You are part of the problem," Leonard apparently wrote on Oct. 28. "As a result of this, y'all are going down, along with Walmart, WTVA, Reeds department store, and all the rest of the anti-American crooks. I'm not kidding. No messing around anymore!" It was the Mississippi flag that was Leonard's undoing, Chief Aguirre said. A cop saw the suspect's car — with a giant Mississippi flag sticking up through the sun roof — run a red light in front of the Walmart. "The officer pulled him over for the traffic violation," Aguirre said, "but when the calls started coming in, we quickly figured out we needed to hang on to this suspect." He is scheduled to appear before a judge on Tuesday.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.