A Northeast Minneapolis man has pleaded guilty in federal court to maliciously using explosives to damage a Minneapolis hair salon, United States Attorney Andrew Luger announced this week.
Michael Allen Francisco, 59, has pleaded guilty to one count of malicious use of explosive materials to damage and destroy a business in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood in November 2022.
Charging documents state that on Nov. 20, 2022, at approximately 2:49 a.m., an explosive device detonated at the hair salon on the 400 block of Cedar Lake Road, causing damage to the exterior and interior of the business. A Ring video camera recording from the salon showed an adult male, later identified as Francisco, placing the explosive device on the window of the salon. Francisco fled the area in a vehicle before the device detonated.
Almost a year later, on Nov. 6, 2023, video footage captured Francisco vandalizing the same hair salon. Francisco threw a landscaping rock through the window of the salon, causing the window to break, before fleeing the scene. Investigators were able to collect DNA and other evidence that connected Francisco to both incidents.
On March 28, 2024, officers and agents executed a search warrant at Francisco’s residence. Law enforcement recovered the jacket Francisco was wearing on Nov. 6, 2023, during the brick incident; multiple explosive components including suspected energetic powders and fuses; a .32 caliber revolver, with ammunition; and methamphetamine.
Alpha News previously reported that related state court documents and a media report from 2022 indicated that the salon owner and an adjacent business owner had been engaged in some type of disagreement in the months preceding the 2022 bombing.
Following his arrest earlier this year, Francisco told investigators that he was good friends with the man who had closed his gift shop business and that he believed the salon owner made a fake Craigslist ad falsely advertising items for free at the gift shop, which led to the closing of his friend’s business.
Francisco also admitted to investigators that he placed the explosive device on the window of the salon and lit the fuse before leaving the area, as well as throwing the rock through the window a year later.
Francisco pleaded guilty this week in U.S. District Court before Judge Ann D. Montgomery and will be sentenced at a later date.
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Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
Crime Watch MN
Minnesota Crime Watch & Information publishes news, info and commentary about crime, public safety and livability issues in Minneapolis, the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota.
