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Malik Muhammad, a 25-year-old Indiana man accused of throwing Molotov cocktails in the direction of Portland police during protests in the fall of 2020, is slated to plead guilty to charges in state and federal court next week.
“Mr. Muhammad is scheduled to plead guilty on March 28th,” says Kevin Sonoff, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon. “The details of his plea are not yet public.” A spokeswoman in the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office also confirmed that Muhammad is expected to change his plea to guilty in state court on March 29.
Muhammad faces 28 counts in Multnomah County, including charges for attempted aggravated murder and unlawful manufacture and possession of a destructive device, as well as six counts in federal court for civil disorder, using an explosive to commit a felony, and unlawful possession of a destructive device. He is also accused of handing out baseball bats—purchased at the McMinnville Goodwill—to protesters.
In a November 2021 filing in Multnomah County Circuit Court, his attorney wrote: “Mr. Muhammad is a valued member of his community and an involved father. He is a military veteran with an honorable discharge in 2018.”
Federal prosecutors allege that a search of Muhammad’s “travel trailer” in October 2020 yielded multiple firearms, including an AR-15 rifle. When detectives contacted the rifle’s owner, who lives in Indianapolis, he allegedly told them that Muhammad was “a communist revolutionary who was attempting to gather people with firearms to engage in acts of violence.”