Editor’s note: The video above was originally published on Oct. 1, 2020, after Molotov cocktails were thrown at Black Coffee Northwest in Shoreline.
SHORELINE, Wash. - Two brothers pleaded not guilty to charges connected to a firebombing of a coffee shop in Shoreline in September 2020.
Taylor Lemay Rice, 23, and Daniel Lemay Rice, 21, were arraigned on an indictment Thursday and released on personal appearance bonds, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Western District of Washington. The two brothers are charged with unlawful possession of a destructive device – identified as four Molotov cocktails.
Around 3:30 a.m. on September 30, 2020, Molotov cocktails were thrown at Black Coffee Northwest on Aurora Ave. in Shoreline.
The Molotov cocktails didn’t burn the building down or extensively damage it, but the sides of the building were darkened. One of the Molotov cocktails was thrown near the building’s natural gas line.
The men were identified as suspects “after extensive work by law enforcement involving review of surveillance video and cell phone records,” according to a press release.
The coffee shop was closed at the time and scheduled to reopen under new operators.
According to a press release, prosecutors indicated at a detention hearing the firebombing might have been motivated “by a dispute over one of the brother’s cars being towed from the area around the coffee stand a few months earlier.”
If convicted, unlawful possession of a destructive device is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
A trial is scheduled for Jan. 3, 2022.