Helped by AI, man built bombs he planned to detonate in Manhattan, officials say
Federal prosecutors indicted a 55-year-old Long Island, New York, man Tuesday, alleging he built seven homemade bombs with the help of artificial intelligence, a process he called “easier than buying gun powder,” according to court documents.
The man, Michael Gann, transported the bombs from Long Island to New York City and stored five of them and four shotgun shells on an apartment building rooftop in the SoHo neighborhood, officials said. He intended to combine the shotgun shells with one or more of the improvised explosive devices, they said.
On March 27, Gann posted a message to President Donald Trump’s official X account, the indictment said.
“Dear @POTUS, I’m thinking just now here in NYC that it’s too bad that the wall wasn’t built before the National Guard would have to come here for the Protests and Riotation,” he was said to have written. “Or would you just drop a bomb on this place while and because they seem to be coming and coming?”
Five weeks later, Gann was arrested after he posted on Instagram, “Who wants me to go out to play like no tomorrow?” according to authorities.
Gann has not yet entered a plea, and his attorney declined to comment.
Ordering online
Gann told law enforcement officials that he used two household compounds that he ordered online to make the improvised explosives, according to court documents. He also purchased over 200 cardboard tubes and more than 50 feet of fuses. One of the devices he built had roughly 30 grams of explosive powder — about 600 times the legal limit for consumer fireworks.
Officials said he appeared to have acted alone and was not acting as part of a group.
“Gann allegedly produced multiple improvised explosive devices intended for use in Manhattan,” said Christopher Raia, the head of the FBI’s New York field office. “Due to the successful partnership of law enforcement agencies in New York, Gann was swiftly brought to justice before he could harm innocent civilians.”
One of the witnesses, a U.S. military veteran, told the FBI that as Gann was mixing the explosives in Inwood, a town on Long Island, he said, “What kind of veteran are you? You see a problem going on in the neighborhood and you do nothing about it.”
“Gann then pointed to a Jewish school,” according to a criminal complaint that was filed at the time of his arrest.
A second witness agreed to make phone calls to Gann while the FBI listened in, according to the criminal complaint. Gann told the witness in one call that “he had lit one of the devices near the East River on the FDR Drive; that the device had exploded, scaring Gann,” it says.
Gann then said, according to the witness, that he was considering disposing of the remaining five devices by throwing them into the river or turning them in to the New York City Fire Department.
On June 5, the day of the alleged call, law enforcement agents saw Gann walking down the street carrying a shoulder bag, according to the complaint. When the agents identified themselves to Gann, he told them he was on his way to the fire department to drop the devices off, it says.
After being read his rights, Gann told law enforcement officials that he “wished to make pyrotechnics and used artificial intelligence to learn which chemicals to purchase and mix,” the complaint says.
It says Gann created four devices initially and threw three from the Manhattan side of the Williamsburg Bridge. Two devices fell into the water, and one fell on the train tracks and was recovered near there.
“Gann built explosive devices, stored them on a rooftop in SoHo,” interim U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said, “and threw one onto the subway tracks — putting countless lives at risk.”