Cesar Altieri Sayoc, the Florida man accused of sending pipe bombs to critics of Donald Trump, had plastered his social media accounts and the van where he was living with signs of his devotion to the Republican president and his hatred for Democrats.
Sayoc, 56, of Aventura, Florida, was arrested on Friday for allegedly mailing at least 13 explosive devices to leading Democratic figures, former high-ranking officials and others, FBI Director Christopher Wray said.
Sayoc, a registered Republican with a criminal history and reported past as a stripper, currently faces up to 48 years in prison, although further charges are expected to be filed against him for the mail-bombing campaign, which heightened political tensions and put the country on edge.
Television footage of Sayoc in custody showed a muscular man in a sleeveless black shirt with close-cropped black hair.
Sayoc has been arrested several times previously, including in Miami-Dade County in 2002 for making a bomb threat against a power company, according to court records available online. He was sentenced to a year on probation. He has also been arrested for theft and domestic violence.
Sayoc, who sometimes goes by the name Cesar Altieri, also has a history of financial problems and filed for bankruptcy in 2012, according to county records.
Sayoc’s political leanings are on full display on his Facebook page — which CNN reported has been removed by the social network — as well as his now-suspended Twitter accounts and his impounded white van, which was covered with pro-Trump decals and anti-Democrat stickers.
A picture on Sayoc’s Facebook page shows him wearing a red Trump “Make America Great Again” hat and photos have since surfaced of him attending Trump rallies in Florida.
One of the windows of his van, which was seized by the FBI, features pictures of former president Barack Obama and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton with red bulls-eyes on their faces.
There’s also a “CNN Sucks” sticker with a target over the face of one of the network’s frequent commentators, Van Jones.
Obama, Clinton and CNN were intended recipients of the pipe bombs sent through the mail with a return address in Florida.
Debra Gureghian, the general manager of a pizza restaurant in Fort Lauderdale where Sayoc worked as a delivery truck driver for several months, described him to The Washington Post as “crazed.”
“That’s the best word for him,” Gureghian said. “There was something really off with him.”
“He was very angry and angry at the world, at blacks, Jews, gays,” she said.
“He never said he would kill them or murder them or bomb them he just said ‘If I had complete autonomy the gays, the black and Jews would not survive,'” she said. “He was very, very strange.”