Mexican national gets 4 years after tossing Molotov cocktail at deputies during Paramount protest

A Mexican national who admitted throwing a lit Molotov cocktail toward law-enforcement officers during a June protest in Paramount, stemming from immigration-enforcement operations, was sentenced on Friday, Jan. 30, to four years behind bars.

Emiliano Gálvez, 23, who prosecutors say was living in Paramount, pleaded guilty in October in Los Angeles federal court to possession of an unregistered destructive device and civil disorder.

In an affidavit filed with the court, Gálvez says he lit and threw a Molotov cocktail over a wall where Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies were engaging in crowd control — then ran away.

A crowd had assembled near a staging area for federal agents who were preparing for immigration-enforcement operations, prosecutors said.

“This defendant’s reckless behavior threatened the lives and safety of law-enforcement officers and that of a lawful protester,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement.

The Molotov cocktail Gálvez threw landed in a grassy area near a protester and 15 feet from deputies.

“(Gálvez) threw an incendiary device capable of killing someone,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “And his destructive device came far closer to injuring a civilian holding a sign, as opposed to (his) intended target — the sheriff’s deputies.”