Man accused of ramming Pittsburgh FBI gate appears in court
The Penn Hills man accused of ramming his car early Wednesday into the gate of the FBI’s field office on Pittsburgh’s South Side said he wanted to “make a statement,” according to a criminal complaint.
Authorities said Donald Henson, 46, placed an American flag on the damaged gate after the impact.
They described the attack as targeted.
“He stated ‘sic semper tyrannis,’ which is a Latin phrase meaning ‘thus always to tyrants,’ ” according to the complaint. “It is famously associated with the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth, who is said to have shouted the phrase after shooting the president.”
Henson was taken into custody just before 10:30 a.m.
He is charged with two felony counts, including damaging government property and assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers.
During an initial appearance Wednesday afternoon in federal court in Downtown Pittsburgh, Henson told U.S. Magistrate Judge Chris Brown he did not understand the charges against him.
He then told the judge he was an Air Force officer.
“I can’t do this,” Henson said, trying to stand up and walk away. Two men, law enforcement officers in street clothes, guided him back to his chair.
Brown appointed federal public defender Sarah Levin to represent Henson, who said he did not want to be represented by a public defender and would hire a different attorney.
Henson, who was wearing blue jeans and a black T-shirt, seemed agitated. Before the hearing started, he leaned back and started at the ceiling when his attorney tried to talk with him.
After the judge asked Henson if he understood why he was in court, Henson replied, “I was advised it was something of a matter that was ceremonious and not legal. If it is, I’m not interested.”
He later told the judge he had an appointment with Veterans Affairs.
Levin told the judge Henson had been receiving treatment at the VA. Henson said he was being treated by a physician and a psychiatrist and had not had his prescription medications in the past 24 hours.
The government asked that Henson be detained pending trial, arguing he is a danger to the community and a flight risk.
Brown granted that request and ordered Henson detained until his next hearing, scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Monday.
No attorney is yet listed for Henson in court records.
FBI officials said Henson is known to the agency. No injuries were reported.
Appeared incoherent
According to the criminal complaint, at 2:40 a.m. Wednesday, a 2022 white Toyota Corolla registered to Henson rammed the gate on Sidney Street at the FBI building, whose address is in the 3300 block of East Carson Street.
After the impact, the man later identified as Henson went to the driver’s side back door, retrieved an American flag and put it on the damaged gate before walking away.
At the time of the crash, a contracted private security officer was working the security booth approximately seven feet from the gate, the complaint said.
The officer initially thought the driver was having a medical emergency and was going to leave the booth to investigate, but when he saw the driver walk to the rear of the car, he feared he may have been retrieving a weapon and did not approach.
After Henson walked away, the complaint said, he was captured on video by multiple businesses in the area.
In addition to damaging the gate, the impact also created a gap that could have allowed a person to circumvent security and enter the FBI facility, creating a safety threat, the complaint said.
Nakeisha Brown, who works nearby, told TribLive news partner WTAE she watched the driver retrieve something from his car.
“I thought it was a gun, but it happened to be a flag and he just set it on that fence and started yelling out some words and just took off,” Brown said.
Henson appeared to be incoherent when he left the scene, witnesses said.
Bradford Arick, an FBI spokesman, said the car had some sort of message on a side window, but that didn’t appear relevant to the incident.
Arick also said Henson had attempted to report an incident at the field office weeks ago, but it did not amount to anything.
FBI officials said Henson, who they believe is a former member of the military, may have been experiencing a mental health issue.
This is not the first time the FBI’s Pittsburgh gate has been struck.
In July 2016, Thomas Ross of New Waterford, Ohio, drove a dump truck through the FBI Pittsburgh gate, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage.
He was sentenced to time served, ordered to take a residential drug treatment program and pay $45,000 in restitution. He was convicted on federal charges of willfully injuring or committing depredation against U.S. government property.
Bankruptcy filing
According to federal court records, Henson filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in the Western District of Pennsylvania on April 10, 2024.
He listed his address at the time as Shepherd’s Heart Veterans’ Home in Pittsburgh’s Bluff neighborhood and noted he had a storage unit “while homeless in veterans shelter.”
The executive director at Shepherd’s Heart said he couldn’t comment.
According to the bankruptcy court records, a judge approved of $511,952.07 in debt being canceled.
Of that amount, he included $378,044, for student loans.
Henson also listed $30,000 owed to the IRS from 2019, as well as debts of $0.02 and $0.03 listed as “extortion by domestic violence, from 2020 and 2022.”
The bankruptcy petition listed Henson as having 100% ownership in an entity called Insomnia Solutions LLC, but noted that it is “now defunct due to being victim of domestic violence.”
In his court filings, Henson listed his total assets in the petition as $5,888, including a car, a Hyundai Veloster, valued at $5,580.
The case was closed in August 2024.
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