Man Pleads Guilty To Planting Bombs at Vickery Creek Park

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A man accused of placing a backpack containing two pipe bombs at Vickery Creek Park in Roswell has pleaded guilty to a charge of conveying false and misleading information about a crime.

Marietta resident Michael C. Sibley, 67, on Thursday entered the guilty plea to the November 2014 incident, U.S. Attorney Horn said in a press release.

“In addition to breaking the law, threatening an act of terrorism is a serious matter that diverts scarce law enforcement resources away from legitimate threats and unnecessarily causes alarm,” Horn said. “Sibley’s crime is even more troubling because he attempted to exploit stereotypical fears and prejudices.”

On Nov. 4, 2014, visitors to the park, which is part of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area in Roswell, discovered an abandoned bag and contacted Roswell police. Upon inspecting the bag, officers unearthed what appeared to be two constructed pipe bombs.

Nails and screws were taped to the outside of the tubing “consistent with construction designed for maximum fragmentation upon explosion,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. The pipe bombs also appeared to be ready for remote detonation. The devices, however, did not have a power source.

The name on the backpack appeared to be of Middle Eastern origin, and its contents included two books, “The Rape of Kuwait” and “The Holy Qur’an.”

On March 20 of this year, Sibley voluntarily reached out to FBI agents and asked for a meeting. That’s when the Roswell resident confessed to making the pipe bombs and placing them in the park, Horn said.

Sibley, according to the office, said he left the contents at the park to “wake up” American citizens.

He charged to agents that the Mexican border is “poorly defended,” and people are entering the United States illegally, Horn stated.

“He also said that he made the explosive devices and placed them in the park to make people realize that if this can happen in Roswell, Georgia, it can happen anywhere,” the press release said.

J. Britt Johnson, special agent in charge of the FBI Atlanta Field Office, added Sibley’s plea concludes an investigation that ”triggered a significant law enforcement response.”

Sibley will be sentenced Jan. 21, 2016. This case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Assistant United States Attorney Tracia M. King is prosecuting the case.

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