Woman sentenced for setting fire to alleged Kansas City ICE holding facility 

The Kansas City woman who set fire to a reported Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility earlier this year has been sentenced to two years in prison.

Dara O’Connor, 30, was caught throwing Molotov cocktails – incendiary devices usually made from a glass bottle, ignitable fluid and a wick – onto a Platform Ventures warehouse on Botts Road in Kansas City in February.

After covering an exterior wall in flammable liquid, O’Connor lit it on fire and sprayed more accelerant to help the fire spread.

Media reports before the incident indicated the warehouse had been sold to ICE to be used as a detention center. However, while the agency had attempted to purchase the building, the transaction never happened, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri.

News agencies recorded O’Connor setting the building on fire while they were at the warehouse reporting on the building’s sale status. The fire went out after a few minutes as O’Connor sat on a nearby curb to use her cell phone. She then drove away in her car.

O’Connor accepted a plea agreement in May and pleaded guilty to one count of knowingly possessing two destructive devices that were not registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record. She was also required to pay $43,612 in restitution for the crime.

She was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison, followed by two years of supervised release.

(Photo credit: U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri, altered)