‘Violent and reckless’ O.C. Planned Parenthood firebombing plot detailed in federal indictment

Chance Brannon, a Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton, and Tibet Ergul of Irvine are accused of being the two masked individuals who threw a Molotov cocktail, igniting a blaze, at a Costa Mesa Planned Parenthood clinic last year. A Florida man was arrested and identified as the third suspect involved in the 2022 firebombing of a Costa Mesa Planned Parenthood clinic along with a U.S. Marine and another accomplice, according to a federal indictment unsealed Monday. Threats and violence targeting reproductive healthcare facilities have become increasingly common, with the U.S. Department of Justice prosecuting more than two dozen such cases in the last four years, including a group that tried to physically block an entrance to a Washington, D.C., clinic last year and a man who in 2020 and 2021 shot a BB gun at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Pasadena. “ will continue to provide expert, compassionate care for the community as we have done for over 50 years.” On the day of the attack, Brannon and Ergul left Ergul’s Irvine home, went to Planned Parenthood and tossed the Molotov cocktail at the clinic entrance, prosecutors alleged.