Savage man sentenced to over 6 years in prison for starting fires at Dakota County government building

Tommy Wiita

[Photo: U.S. Attorney's Office]

On Wednesday, a 33-year-old Savage man, who pleaded guilty to committing acts of arson to a Dakota County government building in May, was sentenced to prison.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Fornandous Henderson has been sentenced to over six years (78 months) in prison for aiding and abetting arson. Henderson will also serve three years of supervised release once he is out of prison. He pleaded guilty to the crime in August.

According to Henderson’s guilty plea and documents filed in court, Henderson and Garrett Ziegler constructed multiple Molotov cocktails. In the early hours of May 29, Henderson and Ziegler went to the Dakota County Western Service Center (WSC) in Apple Valley. The WSC houses state and local agencies and organizations, including Dakota County court facilities, as well as a U.S. passport center.

Henderson admitted in his guilty plea that he chose the WSC as a target for this arson because he had previously made court appearances at that building and because he was angry with law enforcement regarding the recent death of George Floyd. Using baseball bats, Henderson and Ziegler broke multiple windows at the WSC and threw multiple lit Molotov cocktails. Some of these devices mentioned in court successfully ignited and caused fire damage to the WSC. The damage totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Additionally, Henderson and Ziegler also started and attempted to start other fires at the WSC by pouring ignitable liquids and throwing unlit Molotov cocktails in and around the broken windows, then attempted to start the fluids on fire.

2 charged with throwing Molotov cocktails into Dakota County government building