Man charged with setting fire to Columbia Planned Parenthood clinic

(AP) Federal prosecutors have charged a 42-year-old Columbia, Missouri, man with trying to burn down a Planned Parenthood clinic last month.

Prosecutors announced Monday that Wesley Brian Kaster was arrested Saturday on a charge pertaining to the pre-dawn Feb. 10 fire at the Planned Parenthood-Columbia Health Center, which was empty at the time.

Authorities allege that Kaster broke the clinic’s glass front door and threw in a “Molotov cocktail-type device,” though surveillance video showed it didn’t cause an explosion or fire. They say he returned about an hour later with something in his hand, and that video later showed smoke billowing through the door.

Firefighters found the remains of the Molotov cocktail and two 5-gallon buckets near spilled gasoline inside the clinic.

Public defender Troy Stabenow said he had just been assigned to the case and couldn’t immediately comment.