Florida attorney pleads guilty to trying to detonate explosives near Chinese embassy in Washington

A Florida attorney pleaded guilty on Friday to using a rifle to try to detonate explosives outside the Chinese embassy last year in Washington, D.C.

Christopher Rodriguez also bombed a sculpture of communist leaders Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong in a courtyard outside the Texas Public Radio building in San Antonio, Texas, in 2022, according to a court filing accompanying his guilty plea.

Rodriguez, 45, of Panama City, Florida, is scheduled to be sentenced in Washington by Chief Judge James Boasberg on Oct. 28.

Under the terms of his plea deal, Rodriguez and prosecutors agreed that seven to 10 years in prison would be an appropriate sentence.

Rodriguez pleaded guilty to three counts: damaging property occupied by a foreign government, damaging federal property with explosive materials and possessing an unregistered firearm.

Rodriguez acknowledged that he drove from Florida to Washington and took a taxi to an area near the Chinese embassy in the early-morning hours of Sept. 25, 2023.

Rodriguez placed a black backpack containing about 15 pounds of explosive materials roughly 12 feet from a wall and fence around the embassy grounds. He admitted that he tried to detonate the explosives by shooting at the backpack with a rifle, but he missed his target.

A U.S. Secret Service officer found the unattended backpack after Rodriguez left the area.

In November 2022, Rodriguez drove to San Antonio in a rental car and scaled an eight-foot fence to enter the courtyard containing the sculpture of Lenin and Mao. He placed two canisters of explosive material on the base of the sculpture, climbed onto a roof overlooking the courtyard and shot the canisters with a rifle, triggering an explosion that damaged the sculpture.

Rodriguez, a U.S. Army veteran who was born in Puerto Rico, was arrested in Lafayette, Louisiana, on Nov. 4, 2023. Investigators tied him to the attempted attack on the embassy using DNA from the backpack.